and we continue dancing...

Since I had my dancing shoes already warmed up with my Reflections of Canada piece, I thought I would keep dancing as I finished off my Cornwall Cottage Sampler last week.

So let's not dawdle, let's dance... here it is in all its glory!

I finished it just before midnight on January 17... literally 2 years after we started this as a Sunday SAL with Barb and Linda.  As you can see I did make some changes, in that I centred the bottom row of the alphabet (even though my centering is more than likely somewhat off) instead of stitching the "stitched by" portion of the pattern. Other than that, I stitched it as is, with the called for GAST/Weeks threads.  Even though we totally fell off the Sunday SAL wagon, it was a pleasure to stitch, and I loved watching it come to life.

I've joined in on the stitch from stash wagon this year, including joining the FB group of the same name, to try and not spend so much money on stash...as I have a fairly large stash, and with that I am also making 2017 my year of wips... while I will still start new projects, I am trying to finish up as many of my wips that I already have going.  So far so good... 2 down, 7 active wips to go!  Though I do also have a couple of inactive wips that most people would consider ufo's that may also see the light of day this year... we will see what happens!

The next wip I decided to pull out of the pile to give some love was my Autumn Quaker by Rosewood Manor... now this poor thing hasn't seen any love since May of last year... I know I made an error on it somewhere so something is off, but I have no clue where... so I am sort of "working around" the problem.  This is where I left off last May

I started working on it this week, with the big round motif that is just started at the top of the above picture... I finished that motif off, and will continue along with this project for the rest of this week.

I have one more wip to show you... Sunday was our Sunday SAL for Portrait of Veronica by Mirabilia, and here is where I left off with her...

She is fun to work on, and it is difficult to say the least to put her away every Sunday night when I'm done stitching for the day.

Till next time... happy stitching!

dancing for my weekly update

Happy Monday everyone!

Let's just jump right into things and start off with a quick little happy dance!

I managed to finish off Reflections of Canada by Ink Circles this past week.  I used DMC 815 on a mystery white fabric I managed to find in my stash.

In addition to working on Reflections of Canada, I continued to work on one of my other wips that is getting close to a finish and worked on that one..

I worked on Cornwall Cottage Sampler, by Rosewood Manor...   Originally we started this as a Sunday SAL with Barb and Linda in January of 2015.  However, things didn't quite turn out that way, as life really got in the way, and both Barb and I managed to ditch poor Linda.

After a long break of not working on this, I pulled it out this month and have been working on it off and on.  I just love the colours in this, and it is so enjoyable to work on.

I'm getting closer to getting this one done too.... there is lots of confetti stitching in the basket from the flowers, but it is looking so pretty!

And of course since it is Monday, we had our Sunday SAL with Edith for Portrait of Veronica by Mirabilia.

Here is my progress on her... not sure if you can tell, but I finally did add a little colour other than black last night, though I will admit it is a blended colour with black... hopefully next Sunday, I will have more colour to show.  Considering how much black I stitched with Darth Vader in December, and said I didn't want to see black again for a while, I have actually been enjoying working on Veronica.

And that is it for me!  I have no clue what I will work on this week, if I will continue with Cornwall Cottage until it is done or if I pull a different wip.

But until next week, happy stitching!

2016 re-cap and catch up

I will admit, this has been the worst year for me blogging since I started this blog way back when in 2005.  I just didn't have it in me to bother with it this year...

I'm not going to make any promises or new year's resolutions that I'll try to be a better blogger but I will admit, I am not ready to give up my blog just yet. So to those of you who are still around, thank you!

I would like to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas as well as a very happy new year!

Now onto stitchy stuff!  Let's do a quick recap of 2016 first, and then I will show the newest additions in the catch up part.  This will be a longer post, and definitely filled with lots of pictures!

Here are my finishes for 2016:

from left to right - 1. kitty stitchable key chain, 2. Tea Break by Jardin Prive
3. Home Sweet Home by Les Grilles du Maryse, 4. Pushing up the Daisies by Raise the Roof
5. Bluebird Alphabet  by Just Nan, 6. Geranium by Nora Corbett
7. Blue Village by Satsuma Street, 8. Stitch by Cherry Wood Designs
9. Love Cube by AAN

10. Disney Villains by Cloudsfactory, 11. Mother's Honour Due by Blackbird Designs
12. Remember Me by Sheepish Designs, 13. Darth Vader by Natalineedlework
14. Yoda by Natalineedlework

I forgot to add in pictures of my two small crochet finishes for this year...

And my wips for 2016... I must say that though I've never been a one at a time stitcher, this is the most wips I have had in a very long time!

1. Mini Twist 1-6 by Northern Expressions, 2. Madonna of the Garden by Mirabilia
3. Autumn Quaker by Rosewood Manor, 4. Feather and Friends - Butternut Road

5. Cornwall Cottage - Rosewood Manor, 6. Reflections of Canada by Ink Circles
7. Summer Bouquet by Lanarte, 8. Death by Cross Stitch by Long Dog Samplers

 

 

I received a very lovey stitched gift from one of my best friends, Time to Stitch by Needlework Press. She did such a beautiful job, both on the stitching and the sewing! I just love it!

 

 

 

Also for Christmas I received a stitchable key chain, and on Christmas Eve, I stitched it right up. I love how it turned out!

 

 

 

Now onto the new additions, since my last blog post... for the months of November and most of December (up to the 23rd) I was actually a one project at a time stitcher... something I am normally not... but I got it into my head that I wanted to stitch something for my two great-nephews as gifts... so off I went!

 

First one I did, in November was Yoda by Natalineedlwork on etsy.

 

 

I stitched it on 32ct Jack's Rum jobelan by Stephanie, using the called for colours except Yoda's skin... the pattern calls for dmc 935 and I found that to be too dark, so I switched it to dmc 3363. The words making up Yoda, in case you can't read it, say "Do or do not, there is no try"  I love how it turned out, and my husband did a fantastic job at stretching and framing it!

 

Next up is Darth Vader, also by Natalineedlework on etsy.

 

 

I stitched him on 32ct Loki jobelan by Stephanie, using the called for dmc black, but I did change the red of the light saber to dmc 815... I much prefer the darker reds to the more christmasy red it called for. Here the words say "You don't know the power of the dark side"... and again my husband did the stretching and framing.

 

My newest wip, is Death by Cross Stitch by Long Dog samplers...

 

 

 

I'm stitching it on 28ct Queen Anne's Lace jobelan by wichelt, over two... so yes it will be huge... I ordered a full yard of the fabric...and the design itself will be 26x32 inches big... add the min of 3 inches per side for framing and you have one huge piece of fabric!  I am using dmc 3799 and I bought a 100g cone of floss for it, which is roughly 450 yards of floss... hopefully it will be enough.

 

I do have a bit more stitched on this since taking the picture but I'll save that for my next update.

 

Edith and I will be starting a new Sunday SAL on January 1st, and the pattern we picked is Portrait of Veronica by Mirabilia.  She has everything all ready to go, I'm still deciding on fabric, but hopefully I will have that all picked and ready to go later on today.  As you can see my side bar (and blog) is all updated for January!

 

And last but not least... my tusal updates... I am behind with November, and December's new moon was yesterday, so I'm actually on time with that one!

 

This is from November, as well as the year to date

This is December as well as the year to date

 

I decided to jump on the bandwagon this year and make an ornament from my orts.. however, I saw on one of my stitching facebook groups something that someone did that I liked even better... it took making the ort ornament one step further... They made three, one with the dmc lables, one with the dmc number labels and one with the actual orts...  Sooo off I went to Michael's and got myself some clear fillable ornaments and this is the final result.

 

 

 

I choose the smallest size they had, and for that reason, I had to cut down the number labels so they would fit better.  I really like how they turned out, and now I just need to find some pretty ribbon so I can put them on the tree!

 

thank you if you read this far!  That is it for me for now... and until next time, happy new year and happy stitching!

time flies....

Wow, where has the time gone??? I can't believe it is almost the end of October and the that the last time I posted to my poor blog was back in July!

Time to dust off the ole' keyboard and get to work! I wanted to update my side bar with my monthly blinkies, but it seems that photobucket isn't working well today, so that will have to wait.

I have been busy stitching away, just as usual not posting... I have a bunch to show off, but I'll break it up into a couple of posts...

First of all I'm behind in posting my tusal's to my blog... I have been posting them on instagram, just as you may have noticed, not here... so here we go!

 

this is August's jar as well as the year to date in the bigger one

 

 

next up is September's jar and the year to date... as you can see lots of stitching going on.... and of course finally this is for October...

 

 

 

I've been working on all sorts of things, my various wips as well as starting new things, but those will come later... for now I'll share a couple of little happy dances...

 

One of my wips is the mini twist series by Northern Expressions, which is a 6 part series of different specialty stitches... I've done the first two... I am doing them all in the same colour combination and all on one piece of fabric.

 

Part one was Symrnas and Eyelets and part two was Rhodes and Rice stitches...  here they are together

 

 

I am using 32ct chocolate milk jobelan by Hand Dyed by Stephanie, DMC 930 and blue bunny thread by Nina as my colour combo.

 

I also started and finished off Remember Me by Sheepish Designs... I first saw this framed up at LNS and fell in love, and even though it is an OOP design, I began my search!  Finally after a couple of years I managed to track it down and here it is! 

 

 

 

It looks a bit crooked in the picture, but that is just due to my photography skills... it really is a nice rectangle....  It is stitched on 32ct ivory jobelan using the called for DMC, except I did change 2 of the colours - the pinks as the original ones were more brown and I didn't want brown flowers... and the original picture on the chart showed something similar to what I chose.

 

Wips and new starts up next... but that will have to wait until my next post...

 

Until then....happy stitching!



a little dance

I have a little happy dance to share... I managed to finish off Mother's Honour Due by Blackbird Designs...

It is stitched on 32ct ivory jobelan using Nina's threads - Amber, Hunter Crescent Colours - Wild Berries, Peapod and GAST - Claret.

busy as a bee... tusals, wips and more...

Okay I have been missing in action from my blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been productive... just lazy when it comes to posting...

Let's start with the tusal posts as today is our ort report day! 

I took a picture for June, but didn't post here only on instagram... go figure... and I have today's picture to show off...

so here are my full ort jars in their glory!

June

July

So as you can see lots of stitching going on!

I have a few finishes to show, so I'll do those first and then my wips that I have going on...

First up is Love Cube by AAN - I made it into a wedding sampler for my nephew who is getting married at the end of the month.  It just needs to be ironed and stretched, as we already have the frame.

I stitched with Dmc 816, Nina's threads in old gold and raven on 32ct silver mist jobelan by Stephanie

Next up is Blue Village by Satsuma Street.  This is my first but not last stitch from this designer... love their whimsical and colourful designs.

I stitched on 32ct winter solstice jobelan by Stephanie using the called for threads.

Next up is the last finish to show, and also another first for me... My first ever stitch/finish of a Just Nan pattern.  I have a few Nan patterns in my stash, but until now I have never stitched any.  I really like the way this turned out.

I stitched it with the called for threads on 32ct pollywog Princess jobelan by Stephanie.

Next up a wip, and a couple of new starts...

I made some really good progress on my Cornwall Cottage Sampler, I won't say I can see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet, but it is getting closer!

Stitched on 32ct ivory jobelan with the called for Weeks threads.  As you can see, I've changed the alphabet part a little and centred the bottom line... I didn't want to add that "wrought by" box...once the basket is finished I will decide what to do with the two spaces at the beginning and end of that line... if I will just leave them blank, or  add some sort of motifs ...

I also have two new starts... I started Reflections of Canada by Ink Circles on Friday - July 1 - Canada Day.

 

I'm stitching it with DMC 815 on white jobelan... I am unsure of the count... I believe it to be 28 but when I checked it, it came to 25ct... however I don't ever remember owning 25ct fabric... so I really have no clue other than it is white...

I'm making pretty good progress on this, and love seeing all of the small details come to life...

 

My other new start is Mother's Honour Due by Blackbird Designs...



I am actually a bit further along on this pattern but this is my most up to date photo.  It is being stitched on ivory jobelan 32ct I believe, with threads from my stash.  Nina's threads: Hunter, Amber
GAST: claret, and Crescent Colors: peapod, wild berries.

I plan on personalizing it by adding not only my mom but my grandmothers names to it as well

Anyways, that is it for now... until next time happy stitching!

time flies...

 First off, it was the new moon on the 6th, so that means it is time for our TUSAL... here is my jar full of orts!  I managed to get lots of stitching in again this month!  I'm very happy about that.

I also managed to have a couple of happy dances too!  I finished off Geranium by Mirabillia/Nora Corbett.  She is stitched with the called for threads and beads, except I made one small change to the beads... I used the colour that was called for, I just changed the size...

there are blue beads that go along the outside of her wings, and these are supposed to be much larger... well I didn't like the look of them, so I switched them out... luckily I had the exact same colour but smaller in my stash, so I didn't need to look far!

I really like the way she turned out... and I've missed stitching Mira's... I am going to have to definitely put another one into my rotation in the near future!  She is stitched on 32ct tactical camo jobelan by Hand Dyed by Stephanie.  You can't quite tell from the picture, but it has nice green undertones in it.

I have a second happy dance to report as well... I was wanting some small "quick" finishes to add in to my stitching rotation, and as I was playing with my stash... I came across the dictionary series by Cherrywood Designs.  This is stitch... and there are a total of 6 in the original series, plus one bonus.  I do plan on stitching them all.  They are quite fun.

 

It is stitched on  32ct toasted almond jobelan by Stephanie as well, and I used DMC 3750.  My plan is to stitch 3 in the same blue, and then the other three in a deep red/burgundy colour on similar fabric.

 

I made some progress on my Autumn Quakers by Rosewood Manor as well... 

 

The bottom half is done, and I have moved on to the top half... I made some counting errors in the bottom left corner, so I had to adjust a few of the smaller motifs near the center to make sure things fit properly.  I love working with the Valdini threads, the colours are so rich.  I can hardly wait until this one is done and then get and start one of the other seasons!.

 

It is time to switch projects... not sure exactly which I will pick up... but until next time... happy stitching!

catching up...

It seems as of late that all I'm doing is catch up posts!  I love reading other people's blogs, I like my blog and I like posting, I've just gotten very lazy at it!

However enough of that, let's get on to the important stuff! Stitching and orts! 

April's new moon has come and gone, it was on April 7.  As usual, I took my picture in time, but as you can guess.... I'm only posting it now...

Same set up as before... small jar is this month's contribution, big jar is the year to date.

I've also managed to have a couple of smaller happy dances since I last posted... I started and finished Pushing up the daisies by Raise the Roof Designs... I just need the actual daisy buttons that go along the fence. I know it is not to everyone's taste, but I like it and think it is funny.

It is stitched on 32ct whimsical winter jobelan by Under the Sea fabrics with dmc.  I changed the fence from white to a more yellowy wood looking colour.

My next finish is also a small fun piece... Disney Villains by Cloudsfactory.  It is also stitched on 32ct whimsical winter jobelan by Under the Sea, using dmc.

My third finish is a crochet finish... another baby blanket

I didn't feel like stitching on my other wips so I decided to start something new... I pulled out a Mira/Nora Corbett pattern... haven't worked on any sort of mira in over a year!  I decided on Geranium.... here my last progress picture... though I now have more done since this was taken... I'm working on her skirt now.

I'm stitching her on 32ct tactical camo jobelan by Hand dyed by Stephanie.

Anyways, that is all for now... till next time... happy stitching!

a finish and a wip

just a quick post to say I have a happy dance!

I finished my Home Sweet Home project by Les Grilles du Maryse.  It was her 2013 SAL. There are other accessories that I haven't stitched yet, but this was the main part of the project.

 

It is stitched on 32ct mulled cider jobelan by Stephanie using DMC ecru. I haven't decided if I will stitch the other parts, but I do have enough fabric I do.

 

Next up, is where I left off with my Cornwall Cottage!  I did a little happy dance with that one as well, as my border matched up perfectly, with no frogging.  I was very relieved!  

 

Since I've been good this year so far and have only worked on wips, I think it is time to start a new project! I haven't decided yet on which one, but definitely something new for a bit before going back to my other projects.

Till next time, happy stitching!!!

catching up...

It seems that all I'm doing lately is playing catch up with my blog.  I love having one, I love reading other people's blogs, I'm just getting really lazy when it comes to posting on mine.  Which is quite strange, as I have had lots of crafty goodness going on.

So apologies to all that read my blog, if anyone out there still does that I've been so very neglectful.

Now on to that crafty goodness I was mentioning!

First things first, February's TUSAL... I took my picture at the correct time, the new moon, but obviously I've failed to post it on time.  However, better late than never... here is my February ort report.

 

 

I decided that this year I will do my pictures a little differently... I will have my monthly ort jar, as well as my bigger year jar.   As you can see I did much more stitching this last month than the one previously.

 

 

I do have a couple of happy dances to show... one crochet and one cross stitch.... I started and finished an infinity scarf for my niece and here she is modeling it.  It is quite large, as it fits around her head 3x's. But she likes it and is happy with it.

 

 

My cross stitch finish is the new project I start in January... Tea Break by Jardin Prive.  I change the pinks to blues in mine and made the hearts read. Otherwise it is stitched with the called for  DMC threads and is stitched on 32ct whimsical winter jobelan by Under the Sea fabrics.

 



 

Next up I decided to give some of my wips some love... I worked on Autumn Quakers by Rosewood Manor for a week, and here is my updated progress picture of that.



 

 

Then I pulled out my Summer Bouquet by Lanarte, and sort of got stuck on that one for a few weeks (3 weeks to be exact) and made great progress. 

This week I finally changed projects and as of today am working on my Cornwell Cottage also by Rosewood Manor.  I know that one is supposed to be our Sunday SAL... but sadly, the one year we finally have another person join Barbi and I stitching, life happens and the Sunday SAL went out the window.  I'm sure poor Linda is done hers already!   Anyways I hope to catch up to her soon, and finish it in the near future and then maybe we can all get back on track with a new Sunday SAL project.

Till next time... happy stitching!