It all started...
59 years ago today. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Monday, May 29, 2017
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.
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:
Monday, May 15, 2017
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.
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 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.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
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:
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.
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.
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.
Monday, April 17, 2017
April's Gifted Gorgeousness
Not an imaginative post title, but accurate. Once a month, Jo at Serendipitous Stitching wants to see what we're stitching that was gifted to us, either whole or bits and pieces, or what we're stitching that is a gift or whatever we can shoehorn into the category of a gift. She does this under the mantle of the SAL.
I had dreams of massive amounts of stitching progress during my weeks working from home; however, last week was more famine than feast. I was so much more tired after the surgery than I had anticipated that I was thrilled to stay awake until 9:00. Because the surgery was laparoscopic and the incision was in my belly button, there is no visible evidence of me having had surgery; therefore, in my mind there was no surgery. If I have to have surgery in the future, I'm going to ask for a big, ol' bandage so that it at least looks like I had something done and will maybe remember that I'm supposed to be taking it easy have to say I'm still trying to figure out how they got my gallbladder out through that tiny cut.
Back to Gifted Gorgeousness. I have three Heaven and Earth Designs pieces that fit in the SAL, Shakespearean Fantasy, It's About Time, and Santa and the Mouse. I don't have any progress to show since my last post, but the background of how these fit in the SAL is: Shakespearean Fantasy's pattern was a gift from Pull the Other Thread; It's About Time's pattern was a gift from Kate at Needles and Haystacks; and, Santa and the Mouse is a retired freebie from HaED so I'm counting it as a gift.
I have two gifts for other people, Sentimental Heart from The Sweetheart Tree is a wedding gift for DNiece and A Glimpse of Santa from Stoney Creek is a Christmas gift for DNiece-to-be and the fabric was a gift from The Hubs this past Christmas (he bought me a 10-yard bolt of 28-count antique white Monaco - okay I found it, bought it and gave it to him to wrap). Here is Sentimental Heart again
and A Glimpse of Santa is here
SAL. I had dreams of massive amounts of stitching progress during my weeks working from home; however, last week was more famine than feast. I was so much more tired after the surgery than I had anticipated that I was thrilled to stay awake until 9:00. Because the surgery was laparoscopic and the incision was in my belly button, there is no visible evidence of me having had surgery; therefore, in my mind there was no surgery. If I have to have surgery in the future, I'm going to ask for a big, ol' bandage so that it at least looks like I had something done and will maybe remember that I'm supposed to be taking it easy have to say I'm still trying to figure out how they got my gallbladder out through that tiny cut.
Back to Gifted Gorgeousness. I have three Heaven and Earth Designs pieces that fit in the SAL, Shakespearean Fantasy, It's About Time, and Santa and the Mouse. I don't have any progress to show since my last post, but the background of how these fit in the SAL is: Shakespearean Fantasy's pattern was a gift from Pull the Other Thread; It's About Time's pattern was a gift from Kate at Needles and Haystacks; and, Santa and the Mouse is a retired freebie from HaED so I'm counting it as a gift.
I have two gifts for other people, Sentimental Heart from The Sweetheart Tree is a wedding gift for DNiece and A Glimpse of Santa from Stoney Creek is a Christmas gift for DNiece-to-be and the fabric was a gift from The Hubs this past Christmas (he bought me a 10-yard bolt of 28-count antique white Monaco - okay I found it, bought it and gave it to him to wrap). Here is Sentimental Heart again
and A Glimpse of Santa is here
My last SAL piece is Gold and Purple Corner from Scarlet Suen. This is another freebie, this time from The Sample Life SAL:
Now that I am not quite so tired, I hope to get more evening stitching done this week.
Monday, April 10, 2017
A start, a finish and other stuff
Another finish! I am as shocked as you! Sentimental Heart is now hanging on the "Admire Me" curtain and will be off to the framer sometime this week.
It took a while to get the beads figured out on the modified areas, but I am happy with how it turned out.
With that finish, I have one commitment piece to go. A Glimpse of Santa is one the frame now and looks like this:
Someday this will be a Christmas stocking. The pattern is from the Stoney Creek Collection and is done on antique white 28-count Monaco with DMC. There will be a few modifications for this one also as the pattern is so old (I just found it but the copyright is 2001) that most of the called for bits and bobs are no longer available. I see some time at the jewelry/bead sections of the big box stores in my future and am looking forward to seeing what I can find.
I also got some time in on Santa and the Mouse and Shakespearean Fantasy this week.
Started his glove and did a bit of a curtain.
More black here, but I should be back into the greens when I pull it back out Friday evening.
And last for this week:
Gold and Purple Corner by Scarlet Suen for The Sampler Life SAL. I have a couple more gold motifs to add and then onto the purple. I am fairly confident I will finish this one this month. I do need to unroll this so I can get a photo of the whole thing and remind myself what it looks like.
I should pull It's About Time out and get a few stitches into it this evening, but I am beat. I had some minor surgery last Wednesday. Few days off work and, because of my killer commute, a couple weeks of telework just to be sure everything stays together and where it's supposed to be. I had no trouble getting up and getting going this morning, but around 2:30 this afternoon my energy level fell through the floor and I almost fell asleep on my computer. Granted the project I'm working on isn't the most exciting thing ever dreamed up, but it isn't something that normally puts me to sleep. All that round about to say, I don't think I will be doing any stitching tonight. But as I have two weeks of evenings ahead of me, I'm not going to be too upset about losing tonight.
 |
With that finish, I have one commitment piece to go. A Glimpse of Santa is one the frame now and looks like this:
Someday this will be a Christmas stocking. The pattern is from the Stoney Creek Collection and is done on antique white 28-count Monaco with DMC. There will be a few modifications for this one also as the pattern is so old (I just found it but the copyright is 2001) that most of the called for bits and bobs are no longer available. I see some time at the jewelry/bead sections of the big box stores in my future and am looking forward to seeing what I can find.
I also got some time in on Santa and the Mouse and Shakespearean Fantasy this week.
And last for this week:
Gold and Purple Corner by Scarlet Suen for The Sampler Life SAL. I have a couple more gold motifs to add and then onto the purple. I am fairly confident I will finish this one this month. I do need to unroll this so I can get a photo of the whole thing and remind myself what it looks like.
I should pull It's About Time out and get a few stitches into it this evening, but I am beat. I had some minor surgery last Wednesday. Few days off work and, because of my killer commute, a couple weeks of telework just to be sure everything stays together and where it's supposed to be. I had no trouble getting up and getting going this morning, but around 2:30 this afternoon my energy level fell through the floor and I almost fell asleep on my computer. Granted the project I'm working on isn't the most exciting thing ever dreamed up, but it isn't something that normally puts me to sleep. All that round about to say, I don't think I will be doing any stitching tonight. But as I have two weeks of evenings ahead of me, I'm not going to be too upset about losing tonight.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
April?
April, huh? Well, happy April everyone. I'm not sure where the last two weeks have gone or what I've been doing. I know one thing I haven't been doing is blogging or reading blogs. Some stitching has been happening but not a lot. Despite the lack of stitching I do have two SALs, and 
, to post about.
is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings and focuses on finishing up those WIPs that we have hanging around. I have a list of pieces that I would like to finish or make progress on up top in the "WIPocalypse Project List and 2017 Stitching Plan" tab. Right now I am focusing on wedding gifts, but I do have several other pieces going on too.
The first on my list is It's About Time. Not a lot of progress on this one since my last post, but as of today, it's here:
Next is Shakespearean Fantasy. I finished another column and am slowly working my way to a page finish.
And the last one for this month is Sentimental Heart
All that is left is a bit of stitching below the date, the vine frame and lots of beading. If I can get myself focused I should make good progress this weekend.
The next SAL is. The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus and focuses on smalls. Small is defined by you, so no special patterns to buy or find. I am currently finishing up The Sampler Life SAL pieces as my smalls and they are mostly 50X50 stitches. This month's finish is from Golden Circle Designs:
I also started my next block. More on that one in a later blog post.
Sentimental Heart is on the frame this weekend with a bit of time out for the new small, so hopefully there will be lots of progress to show next time.
and , to post about. is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings and focuses on finishing up those WIPs that we have hanging around. I have a list of pieces that I would like to finish or make progress on up top in the "WIPocalypse Project List and 2017 Stitching Plan" tab. Right now I am focusing on wedding gifts, but I do have several other pieces going on too.The first on my list is It's About Time. Not a lot of progress on this one since my last post, but as of today, it's here:
Next is Shakespearean Fantasy. I finished another column and am slowly working my way to a page finish.
And the last one for this month is Sentimental Heart
The next SAL is
. The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus and focuses on smalls. Small is defined by you, so no special patterns to buy or find. I am currently finishing up The Sampler Life SAL pieces as my smalls and they are mostly 50X50 stitches. This month's finish is from Golden Circle Designs:
Sentimental Heart is on the frame this weekend with a bit of time out for the new small, so hopefully there will be lots of progress to show next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)