Mega-Mini Month Madness SAL Part 2

Pull the Other Thread is hosting the Mega-Mini Month Madness SAL through October.  One month to celebrate (and stitch) on minis and smalls.  Pick one or several minis/smalls to stitch on and post once a week during October.  As I am home this month, I figured it would be a great chance to work on a few pieces from my smalls box.  I picked The Nutmeg Company's Fondant Icing as my first piece.  Well, with the progress or should I say lack of progress that I had this week, this may be my only small this month!

Here is where I was:

And here is where I am right now:

The blue in this photo is much closer to the actual fabric color.  I plan to work on this some more today and may designate my mornings as small stitching time, so I hope there is more progress to show next week. 

And before I forget again welcome to my new followers.  I really appreciate each of you that takes the time to read my blathering on.

It was a hermit and stitch weekend!

The third weekend of the month means....   Yes, it was time to hermit and stitch.  I had a whirlwind trip to South Dakota last week for work, so I really didn't have any plans for the weekend other than to catch up on sleep (the two hour time change really got to me this trip) so stitching fit right in with the plans.

While not an IHSW piece, Elegant Doily had one more day on the frame after my last post, and here's where it ended up last Saturday:

Another good stitching round should have the eyelets done!!  I am going to have to soak this once it's completed to try to get rid of the discoloration on the blanket stitches.  Not sure what caused it but I am sure I can figure a way to get it out.  As I'm not really in love with this piece, I'm not fussing over the possibility of extreme measures to clean it. 

Winter Sheep by Little House Needleworks is my first IHSW piece.  This is part of my Smalls SAL but I am going to have to do some fast stitching if I am going to finish it this month.  Here's where I left it yesterday:

It used to be that I couldn't stitch larger pieces in hand but smalls were fine, now nothing seems to work in hand hence the hoop.

Santa's Magic had its turn in the rotation and went from here:

To here:

I really do need to get the beard finished.  Unfortunately, all those blank spaces are done in Wisper and while the result is perfect, the journey is awful.

After Santa, Lizzie*Kate's Holly and Hearts Mystery Sampler went on the frame. It went from here:

To here:

On my monitor there are all sorts of wavy lines on the photo, if you click on it, they go away

I am on vacation for the next two weeks YEAAA!!!!!  but probably won't get too much stitching in.  I get on a train heading to Michigan Wednesday morning and while I am taking a couple of smalls with me just in case the stitching urge hits while I'm on the train or at my sister's, I do tend to read more than stitch while I'm traveling.

Ornament Check-in and a Year in Review (a bit early)

Despite me initial doubts, I did it!!  I managed to stitch twelve ornaments this year as part of Stitching Lotus' Ornament SAL.  I did stumble a bit and not finish one in September but I made up for it by finishing two in November.  You can see all my ornament finishes in the 2013 Ornaments tab.  So without further yakking about it, here is my final ornament for 2013:

1999 Schooler Santa from The Prairie Schooler.  Stitched on an unknown 28-count blue evenweave with called for DMC.

I left out the backstitching on the front of the coat as I did not like the look, but I think it turned out okay without it.

So my slightly early recap of my 2013 stitching. Other than missing IHSW during the summer, I didn't officially participate, but I did stitch those weekends, I think I kept up with all the SALs that I was a member of.  It did help that none of them are really stressful ones and mostly provided me with the incentive to keep stitching.

I was going to post all sorts of before and after photos, but I kept track of my finishes and progress in those little tabs up top there, so decided to save us all from a huge, picture heavy post and just link to the tabs.  I don't have a lot of stitching time, but I was able to finish 17 pieces this year. If you'd like to see them, they are in Finishes tab. WIPocalypse and YOTA were great helps in keeping me focused on finishing four of my long-term WIPs, making progress on two others and reducing my WIP list to 18 and the Ornament SAL filled my need for a new start and quick finishes.  My WIPocalypse recap can be seen in the 2013 WIPocalypse tab.  I am looking forward to participating in YOTA and WIPocalypse again in 2014, as well as all the other SALs that I have signed up for.

I normally start a project on New Year's day, but this year, I didn't wait.  My parents Thanks Mom and Dad gave me this

for Christmas. It's Three Tulips from With Thy Needle and Thread along with the called for threads and fabric.  I immediately had to adapt my stitching plan Kevin at Cabbages and Kings discussed plans and resolutions so much better than I could.  I decided that as I now have five pieces in my rotation and I am off work this week that I would stitch on a different project each day and start my stitching plan on Sunday - I will work on my Smalls project on Saturday.  Three Tulips went on the frame first and is coming along quite nicely - it will be difficult to stop working on it, but I want to give some time to the other pieces in my rotation that have been neglected since about July when I went OAAT (one at a time) with 99.

Currently, my 2014 stitching plan is to do a one week rotation, Sunday through Saturday, with Sunday mornings and my compressed Friday (I am scheduled to work 44 hours the first week of the pay period, 36 the second and have every other Friday off) set aside to work on smalls.  As I am participating in the Just Nan SAL, a Just Nan project will be in the rotation every month.  I haven't yet decided if I will designate a specific week or just randomly tuck it into the rotation.  I am leaning towards random, but the plan is a work in progress and subject to blowing up dismantling being ignored revision at any time.

And before I forget, again, Welcome to my new followers and an apology to anyone that may have commented and didn't receive a response.  Yahoo! revamped things and went to a conversation format - they lumped all emails with the same topic into one list.  I suppose it makes sense if you have only two people involved in the conversation but with blog post comments, it was hard to keep track of who I had responded to and who I hadn't.  I wasn't ignoring any of your comments, just not dealing well with technological "advances".  I have finally figured out how to turn that feature off, so there should not be a repeat in the future.

October Ornament

Time for:

 

 I worked on an ornament in September but didn't finish it, but I did start and finish one in October:

 

This is Poinsettia by Brittercup Designs.  It's from the 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue.  Stitched on 28-count Queen Anne's Lace Jobelan with fibers from The Gentle Art and beads from Mill Hill.  I rather like the design and will be stitching it again.  Not sure how I will finish-finish it but have a couple of ideas.



Late on Everything

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but I did take a slight vacation from blogging and to a lesser extent stitching.  As the days start to get shorter, I feel myself having the need to start getting everything ready for winter although that need is not as necessary as it was when I lived in New Hampshire as we don't have much of a winter here in central Virginia (of course now that I've said that...)  A sure sign that the season is changing is the number of young that are being brought into the bird feeders now.  I've seen two cardinals and a wren coming in with their parents, along with the crows and finches and last evening a mother raccoon and two cubs.  I'm not as excited about the raccoon family, but the sighting explains the amount of feed we're going through.  Another sure sign is the hummingbird invasion has started.  I counted as best as I could with the things whizzing around 15 of them the other day. They are so busy chasing each other away from the feeders that I doubt they have time to feed.

So what have I missed since my last post?  Well, first IHSW but I can't go back and participate so will have to give that one a miss.

Then I missed posting my TUSAL, now that one I can show you:

Not a lot new in there, but the color mix is very pretty.

Next I missed the August WIPocalypse.  Another one I can fix.  I know you're very surprised to see this one aren't you?  67 done, 32 to go.

And one I haven't missed!  My August ornament:

This is Strawberry Delight Ornament by Tink Boord-Dill Needlework.  It's done on a 28-count Lambswool with DMC.  It is definitely more of a springtime pattern, but I like the colors.  Glad it's number came up for the ornament rotation.  I haven't run the random number generator to see which ornament/small is up next.

An ornament and a half

I actually finished my ornament for this month early and was able to start another.

Here's my ornament which some of you have already seen

Summer Sparrow by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched on 28-count Summer Sky Jobelan with Gentle Art Sampler Threads

And the half:

Autumn Blackbird by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched on 28-count Summer Sky Jobelan with Gentle Arts Sampler Threads

No, again, they're not Christmas ornaments, but I want to make a dent in my box of smalls this year, so I am not sticking to just Christmas ornaments. 

I took this week off from work and have been busily stitching on Ink Circles' 99 and should have a full update on that at the end of the week.

IHSW, Ornament Check-In, WIPocalypse, and a Win

My only stitching goal this year was to keep up with the postings for all the SALs that I joined, I was keeping up just fine until this month.  Lots of life got in the way of just about everything not work related this month. I hope April's posting schedule is not indicitive of the rest of the year.

I am also way behind on my blog reading and commenting.  Please don't give up on me, I am trying to catch up on my reading, at least, and hopefully will be caught up by the end of this weekend.  I may not comment, but I am reading!!

So first up is my International Hermit and Stitch Weekend progress.  I worked on Kayann's Kreations' Elegant Doily.  Once again I stitched lots and lots of eyelets and while it's hard to see, there was definite progress:

Before:

And after:

I finished the eyelets around the diamond on the left and the row above the cut-out heart.  I have finally finished doing the pulled work around the prematurely cut sections so the stitching is going much faster as I don't have to worry about pulling too hard and pulling out the cut ends.

Next up is my April ornament check-in.  All of my ornaments can be seen in the 2013 Ornament tab above, but here is my April finish:

It is Cardinal Winter from Little House Needleworks' 2011 Ornament Series.  The word "tweet" didn't do too much for me, so I stitched a few more snowflakes instead.  I'm not thrilled with the spacing, so will probably add a couple more. 

April's WIPocalypse can be seen in the very imaginatively named "April WIPocalypse" tab above. There is not as much to show this month, but every stitch done is a stitch closer to a finish.

And last but definitely not least, Thank You, Julie!!!!  Julie the Red Couch Stitcher had a fabric give-away and I won this beautiful piece of 40-count Witch's Brew Newcastle linen from Silkweaver's.  It arrived in today's mail and I love it.  Here's the photo from Julie's blog the one I took, as usual, is bad:

I have a couple of ideas for projects on this but will have to think long and hard before starting one as frogging on 40-count is not fun!!  Thank you again, Julie.

Spring has definitely sprung here in central Virginia.  Our cherry tree was completely covered in blooms this year, it looked like a huge cone of pink cotton candy! The dogwoods are in full bloom, the hummingbirds are back and I have mowed the lawn for the first time with all the onions in the yard it smelled like I was mowing a salad actually some of the things I was mowing did look like greens that I had in a salad recently...

I am starting my new ornament today, a freebie from Waxing Moon designs called Summer Sparrow.  No, it's not a Christmas ornament but I'm stretching "ornament" to cover everything in my box of smalls which includes lots of things.  My stitch for next week is 99 from Ink Circles.

Ornament and Beads

Three months into the year and I have actually kept up with all of the SALs that I joined while caught up in new year excitement.

I promised I'd show my March ornament after the official posting date my other ornaments can be seen in the 2013 Ornament tab above and here it is:

Sunday Spooky SAL 2011 by San-Man Originals
Stitched on 28-count Haunted by Picture this Plus with DMC

This was a very fun stitch and was also the first Halloween ornament I've ever stitched.  I have several more in my stash and am looking forward to working on them.

I spent the better part of two days beading part 1 of Serengeti.  I still have quite a few Delicas to add but am glad to have completed as much as I did.  I was holding my breath while beading as I am stitching this on a 32-count fabric and Martina recommended that it be done on 28-count due to the heavy beading.  I was prepared to leave a few beads out if necessary, but I am happy to say that it wasn't needed.  There is some crowding but I think it will be straightened out during the stretching for framing step.  Talking about framing already!  How optimistic is that?!?!

Here's my before: 

And here's what it looks like today: the fabric color is closer in this one but still a bit dark. 

Serengeti by Chatelaine
Stitched on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan with recommended fibers and beads.

 

I have started a Little House Needleworks ornament for my next ornament and will put Twilight of the Tsars on the frame for my weekend stitch. 

IHSW and Not IHSW

Between my telework day on Thursday, my non-work day on Friday, the weekend and the President's Day holiday, I almost feel like I have a normal life! I leave the house at 4:45AM and don't get home until around 7:30 most week nights so have very little time to do, well much of anything during the week.   I did a lot of stitching, found a new to me show, DCI Banks, and watched every episode I could find, and read.   There was some boring housework and cooking thrown in there too - oh and my car had to go in for some repairs - fortunately *that* wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

We also had a minor invasion the last few days.  Two or three times a day we hear birds, LOTS of birds chattering in the trees around the house and then a black cloud descends on the yard.  Here's just a small portion of the yard just as they are starting to land, by the time they are all landed, there is hardly any grass to be seen just lots of twigs and leaves being thrown in the air as they look for food.  They're grackles, which I think are rather pretty birds, and don't mind them in ones or twos which is what we usually have but I am not so fond of the flocks as they chase all the other birds away.

Please excuse the trash can..

So stitching wise - I have two sets, all that I did last week the non-IHSW and all that was part of the IHSW.  

My non-IHSW piece was Dimple Designs' Twilight of the Tsars.  Here's where I left off last time it was in the rotation:

And here's where I left off Thursday evening:

Dimple Designs Twilight of the Tsars
Stitched on 32-count Belfast with recommended fibers and beads

This project is getting to the point that lots of stitching time doesn't equal lots of progress as the large sections of color are mostly completed so I'm down to confetti- and back stitching.

For IHSW I worked on two different projects, an ornament and my Just Nan.

Here is my progress pic for the ornament:

The Nutmeg Company's Oranges and Lemons Gingerbread House
Stitched on 14-count yellow Aida and 18-count white Aida with DMC and Mill Hill beads

I finished the roof, one side wall and the front wall, and made a start on the second side wall.  I don't think I'm going to get this one finished for the ornament SAL, but I do still have a few days until the end of the month.

My second IHSW project and still on the frame, so hopefully there will be more progress by the end of today is Just Nan's Christmas Elegance.

Here's where it was a few weeks ago:

And here's what it looks like now:

Just Nan's Christmas Elegance
Stitched on 32-count Antique White with DMC and recommended beads

The "Christmas" was all over 1 and took the better part of yesterday afternoon thank goodness for my Mighty Bright magnifier - not affiliated just a very happy customer - and new glasses.  I am hoping to finish one band today.  If I can do that, there will be two bands and the beading to finish next rotation.

YOTA and an Ornament Start

The first Saturday of February means it's time for a YOTA post.  If you're interested in joining this WIP SAL, all the details are here.  I am happy to report that I killed two WIPs, Summer into Autumn and Pine Tree Inn, since my last post.  You can see both finishes under the Finishes tab above.  I also had some progress on Ink Circles' 99.  Here is my before:

and the after 9 down, 90 to go:

Ink Circles' 99
Stitched on 32-count Golden Walnut with DMC

I stitched on several other pieces also, photos and project information are under the January WIPocalypse tab above.

My February ornament is Oranges and Lemons by The Nutmeg Company.  It's another of their gingerbread houses there are four in all.  Here's my start:

The Nutmeg Company's Oranges and Lemons
Stitched on 14-count yellow Aida with DMC

Chatelaine's Serengeti is on the frame for this week.  I'm only a year behind on this one.  Part 12 was posted yesterday and I am only about half through part 1.  For the first time in 8 or 9 years, I won't be part of an active Chatelaine project.  It is going to be very strange to not receive that monthly notice that a new part has been posted...

IHSW and a finish

This past weekend was the first IHSW of the year, I had a four day weekend and had visions of hours and hours of uninterrupted stitching dancing through my head, it wasn't uninterrupted nor was it hours and hours, but I did get a fair amount of stitching in.


I do have one non-IHSW project, Just Nan's Christmas Elegance was on the frame from last week.

Before

Just Nan's Christmas Elegance
Stitched on 28-count white linen with DMC

 The next two projects are IHSW projects and this one is a finish and my first finish of 2013:

Little House Needleworks' Pine Tree Inn
Stitched on 28-count Silkweaver's opalescent Desert Sky with DMC

On the frame this week is The Drawn Thread's Summer into Autumn I probably jinxed myself by putting the year on this one, but I made such good progress this weekend and have today off that I am hoping to be close to a finish by this evening:

Before

The Drawn Thread's Summer into Autumn
As kitted

TUSAL, YOTA and a new SAL

I have myself involved in five different SALs this year. I don't know what came over me, I kept seeing all these sign-ups and thought "I can do that"! It will be interesting to see how long I can keep it up.  

Before I start with the check-ins, I have been very remiss in welcoming my new followers!  Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my, sometimes, rambling posts. OKAY, more often than not rambling posts...

And so far this week, the frog infestation seems to have moved on.  I am hoping they are lost somewhere in the middle of the not a lot that I live in and have not moved onto someone else's home...


My first two check-ins are for Daffycat's TUSAL and Pull the Other Thread's YOTA.

I participated in TUSAL the year before last and it was fun to watch the ORTs pile up. That year I put the ORTs directly into that year's glass ortament um that would be an ornament full of ORTS. Turns out that was a bad choice as I didn't realize how often I went digging through my bits of leftovers for a piece just big enough to do half a stitch or to help pull a thread through. I did learn my lesson and this year am using a much more appropriate, for my stitching style, bowl:

Now if the weather had cooperated with some sunshine you really could see the little threads there in the bottom.  There are actually more than usual as I, as mentioned in my previous post, had a frog attack so there are lots of frog fluffed pieces in there.  If you're interested in joining this SAL, hop get it frogs/hop? pun fully intended on over to Daffycat's blog for all the information.

My next check-in is for Pull the Other Thread's YOTA SAL, I found this one through a new to me blog Kali's Creations.  This one is a WIP reduction SAL and one I definitely need.  Between this one and WIPocalypse 2013, I may actually reduce that ridiculously long list over there to the right.  If you're interested in joining this SAL, check it out here!  I don't have a specific WIP that I am focusing on, as my entire rotation is now WIPs, but I did work on these the first two you have already seen, but in the following of the SAL's rules/guidelines, you get to see them again:

Serengeti by Chatelaine.  This was a new start, but as soon as you put a stitch in the piece becomes a WIP, so I am counting it.

Here's my before:

and the after:

Same story with Little House Needlework's Pine Tree Inn. I don't have a before, but here is the after:

Twilight of the Tsar by Dimple Designs is probably more in the spirit of this SAL and I am pleased with the progress I made:

Before:

And after:

Pine Tree Inn is going to be this month's focus piece for the 2013 Ornament SAL at Stitching Lotus.  If you are interested in this SAL, it's not limited to Christmas ornaments, check-in is on the last Wednesday of each month and actually  finishing it into an ornament is optional *that* criteria alone made it something that I thought I could keep up with - if I actually had to finish-finish every ornament, I would have been sunk.  The actual rules are on the SAL tab.  If you're interested in an ornament finishing SAL, there's a new one at Stitched: Now to Finish. 


There in one symbol on TotT that I would like to finish today and then I think Just Nan's Christmas Elegance will be put in the frame for the coming week.

Summertime Stitching

I am safely returned home from my trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. Met lots of new people, which is always a treat, caught up with several old friends and learned a few new things, so a successful conference.

My only regret is that I was not able to get to Ogden. I was one short hour away from Shepherd's Bush and Jill Rensel!! Unfortunately, we were scheduled from morning until sometimes late in the evening, so I wasn't able to get away. Actually, my bank account is probably very happy that I wasn't.

Rant ON - People please, if the bag you're going to carry on is bigger than you are, please be polite and check it.  We all know it's not going to fit in one of those overhead bins, no matter how many times you turn, push or jiggle it around, just admit it. You're just making it difficult for everyone else on the plane. Thank you - rant off.

I typically read while I'm travelling especially if it involves flying as there just isn't enough room to spread out and get comfortable enough to stitch in cattle regular class seats. I did quite a bit of reading but also did a bit of stitching during those "turn off all electronic equipment" times I'm not sure how reading my Kindle during take off or landing is going to cause the plane to crash, but I'm not going to take any chances during the flight on an ornament. Here's my progress:



Holiday Joys
Homespun Elegance

There's not a lot left on this, so I may go one-at-a-time on it until it is done.

Before I left I did a little, very little, bit more on With thy Needle & Thread's Birds of a Feather mystery sampler:

Birds of a Feather mystery sampler
With thy Needle & Thread

I also started Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden over at The Stitch Specialists Yahoo Group. I'm stitching this on opalescent Ocean from Silkweaver Fabrics I really don't like stitching on opalescent fabrics, as I have a very difficult time "keeping the box" but it looks really nice and gives a frosty look which is what I was going for with Weeks Dye Works #1269 (I don't have the tag) and Needle Necessities #130 (no color name, just a number) 

The photo is taken in front of a window, so you can see the parked thread. Parts 1 and 2 are done, part 4 is partially done and part 3 will be done when part 4 is done so that the placement is correct.

Have you put your order in for this yet!?!?

Blackbird Designs - Birds of a Feather - Summer

There is a main design and two bonus patterns per chart - it's a three part series. A year ago I would have said "this isn't my usual style, but I like it", but it seems my taste is changing as I've been ordering and stitching more and more of this style project lately.  I'm sure there's some deep psychological reason for it, but "I like it", seems like a good enough reason to me.