At least it wasn't a full month

No, it hasn't been a full month since my last post, but I am darn close.  Since my last post I steadily stitched away on a piece I can't show you right now as it's a gift.  I finished it last week and got it to the framers the same day as (1) they were having a lovely sale and (2) I wanted it back before Thanksgiving.  After I finished that piece, I pulled out an almost oldie, but definitely a goodie and finished:

Tenth Day from Plum Street Samplers.  I think I may focus on this piece as I would very much like to have it finished for this Christmas.  I really do need to work on my color balance as the fabric is Vintage Autumn Gold from Lakeside Linens and is by no means this washed out.

I have also been collecting ideas and supplies for my holiday crafting and baking blitz.  It will take place the week of November 28th and I am looking forward to spending the entire week creating.  Of course, the collecting ideas part of this brings us to the other reason I haven't been reading or posting as I should - Pinterest!  It really is an evil place and should be banned!!  I have found so many wonderful ideas there.  Of course whenever I see one of those wonderful ideas, the chronological challenged part of my brain says "of course you have time to do this" and the rest of me just goes along with it and I spend hours planning and searching the craft room and house for things to us to make it and suddenly it's midnight and I have lost an entire evening day hour.  I will say there are some amazingly creative and talented people out there and thank them for sharing their talents with the rest of us (even if I do end up chasing rabbits).

I've even done some stashing!!   and .  The first is Christmas Baskets by The Drawn Thread and the second is Halloween on the Farm by Kathy Barrick.  The fabric for Halloween is a mocha color so much richer than shown.  In addition to stitching Halloween, I may steal the cat to use in my attempt to finish a series.  Lisa Roswell of The Primitive Needle designed two pieces  and   (if you can't read them, they are Cape Cod girls they have no combs, they comb their hair with codfish bones and Cape Cod boys they have no sleds, they slide down hill on codfish heads), based on the sea shanty Cape Cod Girls or Bound for Australia.  There is an additional verse of, "Cape Cod cats ain't got no tails, they lost them all in Cape Cod (or nor'east) gales". I am going to try to use bits and pieces of the first two to do the third, but I need a primitive style cat, which Halloween has.  Stay tuned for the next ten or fifteen years for the results.

There are two SAL check-ins coming up,  and  so I might as well be early for them.

 is hosted by Melissa at Measie's Musing and has been going strong since 2012.  This has been a wonderful, low-stress SAL that provides the encouragement needed to work through those works-in-progress so many of us collect.  Hmmmm, that's an idea, I could call it a collection and then nobody would really expect me to finish them would they?  I mean, nobody asks a stamp collector when they are going to use their collection!  While I am thinking on that, I will continue stitching.  Looking back at my October WIPocalypse post, I have had no progress on my chosen pieces.  Sad, sad, sad.  Fortunately, Melissa does give us questions each month to liven things up a bit and this month's is:  What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try-to-stitch bucket list?  For sheer size, Sistine Chapel as charted by Heaven and Earth Designs is my pattern.  Given that I am lucky to do two or three pages a year and there are 55 or 60 pages in the pattern - well I'll let you do the math.  For designer, anything Teresa Wentzler. Not that her pieces are complicated but they do require some concentration and determination.  I have many of her patterns in my stash with Holly and Ivy Sampler at the top of my list to start.  If you're interested, Melissa has said she is going to continue WIPocalypse into 2017, so keep your eyes on her blog for more information.

Jo at Serendipitous Stitching hosts  so that we have a place to thank those that have gifted us with stitching bits and bobs or to show things we are stitching as gifts.  I, again, have no update on the pieces that were gifted to me and I can't show the one I am gifting, so while it's a check-in, it's not a very exciting one.

One more load of laundry to finish and then I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon cruising Pinterest stitching on either another 12 Days block or maybe Santa and the Mouse. 

December WIPocalypse and YOTA - 2014 Recap

Before I get started on my recap, Happy Birthday to DSister! I was digging through pictures but couldn't find any of the two of us when she was a baby.  The closest I got was this one:

It was taken Easter 19-something-something when she was 2 and I was 4 or 5 depending on when Easter was that year.  That foliage behind us?  I think it's honeysuckle that got a bit out of control.  The year after this picture was taken, a chicken took up roost in it.  No we didn't live in the country, we were only a few miles from the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman - we figured she was someone's Easter chick that got away (or was allowed to get away as it wasn't cute any longer). We fed her graham crackers and named her Chicken Licken.  Unfortunately, chickens are not good house pets so when we moved to Michigan, we couldn't take her with us.  So one weekend, we caught her, and found a nice farm that took her in.  I am sure she spent many long, happy years wandering around the farm yard doing whatever chickens do and died peacefully in her sleep of extreme old age.

So besides my sister's and DBIL's birthdays and their anniversary and Christmas, December means - recaps!!  As it's the first Saturday of the month and a full moon, there are two recaps, WIPocalypse and YOTA.  Fortunately they are both WIP focused SALs so it is great that the final post for 2014 for both of them falls on the same day.

I had five pieces on my WIPocalypse/YOTA list this year.  I am really pleased with the progress that I made on all of them.

Santa's Magic by Mirabilia went from here:

To here:

Enchanted Swans by Just Nan started here:

And was finished on January 3rd:

Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations went from this:

To this:

The section shown in the before photo is on the left in this photo

I had a bit of a switch up with my Chatelaine piece.  I started with Serengeti and went from here:

To here:

Before it was put away in favor of Secret Victorian Garden.  SVG went from this:

To this:

The lower right section in the before photo is the upper left in this one.

And finally, Three Tulips by With Thy Needle and Thread went from here:

To a finish on April 10th:

So two finishes from my list and good progress on the other three. I don't know if either of these SALs will continue into 2015, but I will continue with my WIP reduction plan. 

Speaking of 2015 SALs, Gifted Gorgeousness, DESIGN and A New Stitchy Start 2015 are still taking sign-ups.  Heather at Stitching Lotus has announced that she will continue with the Smalls SAL for 2015 and is taking sign-ups and Mel at Epic Stitch has a page up, although sign-ups are not open yet, for Stitch from Stash 2015A. Clicking on the SAL's name should take you to the sign up/information pages for each one.

Secret Victorian Garden went on the frame today and I may take a break from the rotation, honestly I have been rubbish at doing any stitching the last couple of weeks so I don't think it will make too much difference, and just leave it on the frame for the rest of the year. I am also gridding fabric for three, yes three, HAED starts (two fairly smalls ones for HAEDs and Shakespearean Fantasy) and am finding it rather relaxing so will throw that in every so often also.  I do hope to have one more small finish this year, but am not really pushing too hard as I have a ton of holiday crafting and baking to finish up over the next couple of weeks.

April WIPocalypse - picture heavy

It's time for April's WIPocalypse posting.   Measi at Measi's Musings has hosted WIPocalypse for the last three years.  If you click on the block you should be taken to the information page and you'll get all the information you need to participate.  This year, in addition to theme months which I pretty much ignore, Measi has provided some questions which I do try to keep up with.  This month's question is how do we organize our stash?  A few years ago, I would have said, "In the craft room", but when I moved to Virginia, I went from a craft room to sharing a room with The Hubs and his computer.  There was 30+ years of crafting supplies in that craft room in New Hampshire and I wasn't sure where it was going to fit in our new home here in Virginia.  It was pretty unorganized the first few months or so (read in boxes all over the house and basement) but then I took the doors off the closet, and put curtains up to use as a display board:

And put shelves up and filled the closet up:

The top shelf has my quilting supplies, the next shelf down has my beading supplies (behind the curtain on the left) and some project boxes.  The fabric is on pants hangars and labeled with fabric color, count and the project it is for.  The colored boxes in the middle there have Carriage House Samplings, Shepherd's Bush and Prairie Schooler patterns.  I use a lot of those scrapbook storage boxes for my needlework. I have several 6-drawer Iris storage carts that I use for both paper crafting and cross stitch storage. For my cross stitch, I put one project per drawer (the drawers are actually storage boxes that slide into the cart), so when I'm ready to stitch on that project, I pull it out and have my pattern, fiber, beads and fabric all in one place. The rest is for paper crafting and rubber stamping.  This is the after, before, it was rather a hodgepodge - now it is just messy.

After another year or so, I bought an Expedit bookcase from Ikea and moved a bunch of stuff out of the closest and the packing boxes from the basement and got this:

The drawers hold my sewing supplies, the two tan baskets have my printed Chatelaine patterns, lots of beading, sewing, stitching patterns, crafting paper, floss and fibers and craft books and magazines fill up the rest of it.  The baskets on the right have my knitting supplies and some mending that needs to be done.

I then bought these units from Michaels for my kitted patterns, my DVDs, assorted papers and The Hubs' books and game manuals:

And that's where I keep my craft stash.

I have four projects left from my original WIPocalypse list, Santa's Magic, Elegant Doily, Secret Victorian Garden and Three Tulips. 

I had a finish this month on Three Tulips.  It went from here:

 to

Santa's Magic was here at the March WIPocalypse:

 and here for this one:



Secret Victorian Garden



and Elegant Doily went from here:

to here:



End of Vacation

I had a very relaxing week off from work, but back to the grind tomorrow - oh to have been born rich instead of beautiful!!  On the plus side, the boss is out next week so it should be quiet and I can catch up on everything - yes that is wishful thinking.

The warmer weather has really greened things up.  The dandelions and violets are blooming all over the yard, the dogwood are blooming in the woods and our cherry tree should be flowering by the end of this week.  I'm sure that in the next couple of weeks I'll be pulling the mower out and spending a good part of Sunday walking around the yard behind it.

Fortunately, the grass held off growing until after my vacation, so I could spend my time off reading, stitching, and watching all those shows I DVRed.  On the stitching front, I had one finish, one start and some progress on another project.

My finish was With Thy Needle and Thread's, Three Tulips (Thanks Mom and Dad for the wonderful Christmas gift):

Stitched on Weeks' Dye Works 30-count Parchment with Weeks Dye Works fibers. 

My start was Lizzie*Kate's Holly and Hearts (Thanks to The Hubs for the wonderful anniversary present):

Stitched on an unknown 28-count Silkweaver's evenweave with Weeks Dye Works fibers (I hope to get a better photo soon)

and my progress was on Little House Needleworks' All is Calm:

Stitched on 30-count Natural Northern Cross linen with DMC

Just Nan's Strawberry Summer is on the frame for this week.

Snow Day Stitching

I had a bit more time for stitching this week than anticipated due to Tuesday being a snow day from work.  Well it wasn't really a snow day it was a "2 hour delay or telework or leave" day.  My road hadn't been plowed so two hours was not a feasible option and as I had been out of town the week before, I didn't have my work computer with me, so I took the day off and stitched and shoveled and chipped ice.

On the frame for the week was Three Tulips from With Thy Needle and Thread.  I was able to go from here: 

To here:

Stitched on 30-count Weeks Dye Works Parchment Linen with Weeks Dye Works, Gentle Arts Sampler Threads and DMC

I am close enough to a finish that I thought about continuing through today on it, but decided it was best to keep with the rotation plan. 

I also put a few stitches in Snowy Pines from Little House Needleworks.

Stitched on 30-count Natural Northern Cross Linen with DMC

I made one change to my WIP list.  I am participating in the Stitching Bandits' Chatelaine Challenge and after some deliberation and gentle coaxing I replaced Serengeti with Secret Victorian Garden.  SVG is much closer to a finish than any of my other Chatelaine WIPs and I thought the challenge would be just the thing to push it to a finish or at least closer to a finish.  Here is where it was when I last stitched on it:

Stitched on 32-count Silkweaver Carol's Meadow with recommended materials

Just Nan's Strawberry Summer is on the frame for this week.  I am not sure how much stitching I will get in today as daylight savings time started this morning one of the more ridiculous ideas that anyone has come up with and I do not adjust well to the change.  Unfortunately, I never fully adjust so I will continue feeling off until the switch back to standard time in October or November.

IHSW, YOTA and TUSAL

I was traveling for work and didn't get home until last night, so I am a bit late posting for ,  and YOTA. 

My IHSW post is really easy - I did H but didn't do any S!  Probably my worst IHSW.  Fortunately there's another one coming up in a few more weeks.

Plenty of stitching did take place this month, just not on IHSW so lots of threads were added for TUSAL:

The cats took exception to something that was outside and knocked the jar off the table when they had to get whatever it was, so the threads are no longer in any order, but still a very pretty combination.

I was able to stitch on each of the projects on my YOTA list this past month, there is more progress on some than others, but they all saw some progress so a good month.

First up is:

Santa's Magic by Mirabilia.  It went from this:

 

To this:

Serengeti by Chatelaine went from here:

To here:

Three Tulips from With Thy Needle and Thread started February here:

And ended the month here:

And finally, Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations went from this:

To this:

Three Tulips will be going on the frame this afternoon for its turn in the rotation.  We are under another winter storm warning for up to 12" of snow, sleet and freezing rain through tomorrow night, so I may have a bit more stitching time than I had anticipated for this week.