that's a wrap...

After stitching this on and off for the last 3 years, 9 months and roughly 2 weeks I finally finished my antique lace sampler by SJ Designs.

It was a class project that my friend E and I started together at our local LNS, which in the mean time was sold to new owners and has now sadly closed.

Here it is all finished...

I actually finished this last week, just didn't post till now. Since finishing, as promised I was a good girl and didn't start any new projects but instead pulled out a WIP from the pile. I decided to work on Madonna Dolorosa by Solaria

Here is my progress as of Monday night. I didn't stitch on Elizabeth this week, as we had guests Sunday, and I didn't feel like switching out projects for a short stitchy session that night. Maybe I'll make progress on her next week!

I'm keeping the Madonna in the qnsaps this week still, I'm making great progress on her. But next week I will be starting something new - I joined an online mystery SAL on the istitch blog. Normally I don't join SAL were there is deadline to follow such as this one has -where you have to stitch the one part and send a picture before getting the next part of the pattern, but that is mainly becuase I can never keep up with them. This one doesn't look like it will be too big, so I'm hoping I can keep up. Now to choose my fabric and thread!

stitching along...

I have a little stitching progress to show you... I didn't get too much stitching time on Sunday with Elizabeth, but I did manage to work on her some...

I finally finished the dress! I am so thrilled to be done with it, it seemed to take forever! Now on to the other parts of the design!!!

I also worked some more on my canvas project - antique lace, with the backstitching. I made some pretty good progress on that one as well. I managed to finish up to the halfway point in the design, so the end is near! I can see it! I've included a picture of the whole design to date as well as a close up of what I've backstitched up to now...

I have continued on with the backstitching this week, so I'll see how far I can get.

I do really want to start a few new projects (again), but I'll try and be good and maybe wait till at least next week to start them or at least one of them. I'm wanting to start Just Nan's Bluebird Alphabet - I've not stitched a Just Nan before as I don't really like her designs with the exception of her snowflake. However, this one just called to me. More than likely becuase it has the alphabet in it, but the colours too. And the other one I wanted to stitch is the Birds of Feather's mystery sampler by With Thy Needle & Thread - which isn't so much of a mystery anymore as all three parts are out!

Anyways, I'll try and be good and not start anything new this week...

a finish and some progress...

In my last post I showed you some partial happy dances, one of which was super close to being finished - my maple leaf... well my beads arrived in the mail yesterday and after a fun evening out with friends, I just had to sit down and finish it up.

So here she is in all her glory...

Maple leaf by AAN
Stitched on 28ct white joblean with DMC 815

I really like the way it turned out, and it was a fairly quick stitch too. Very enjoyable!

I also made some progress on my canvas project, with the backstitching on it. So far so good... It is actually going quicker than I thought it would.

And last but not least, here is my progress on Elizabeth... since it was a long weekend here, I didn't get any stitching done on Sunday on her but Monday instead. Here is where I am...

That dress is a killer! It doesn't look like its very big, but it seems to be taking forever to finish it off... I know that I still have lots of big blocks of colour left to stitch on this project at the bottom, but I really hope they go faster than this darn dress! Other than taking what seems forever, I am really liking the way she is turning out. I know Barbi hasn't been stitching on her lately as she has been busy enjoying the summer, but at least this way I can catch up to her!

tusal and partial happy dances...

Wow two posts in one day! Let's start off with the next installment of the tusal report...

Here is my jar before and after squishing this month... considering I didn't stitch too much this month, I think I did pretty darn good! This last week of stitching really helped fill the jar this month.

I am also finished all the stitching on my maple leaf. I just love the way it turned out. I still have the french knots to do, but I am switching those out for beads. I found the perfect match in my stash, but I didn't have enough, so I'm just waiting for my beads to arrive from Janice @ Traditional Stitches. Micheals doesn't seem to carry mill hill beads anymore, at least the ones I went to, and there is no LNS in our city anymore, and Cochrane was out of stock, so I had to order them online... thank goodness for Janice having them in stock, as I should have them by Tuesday. it would have been sooner but its a long weekend here and Monday is a holiday, so no mail. Anyways, here is my paritial happy dance with the maple leaf...

I finished the stitching on this, on Wednesday night, so come Thursday I pulled out a WIP to work on, my Antique Lace canvas project... I have a mini happy dance to share with that one as well, in that I finished all the filling stitches. Now its on the the real hard part, all the back stitching... Here is a picture of the bottom part where I finished off the filling stitches last night...

I've already changed it on the scroll rods, so I'm back at the top again to start working on the backstitch today in between loads of laundry...

what i've been up to...

I haven't felt like blogging the last little while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been productive!

Here are some pictures of what I've been stitching on...

I've missed posting two weekend SAL progress pictures of Elizabeth, so here is last weekend's report, as well as yesterday's progress...

After my last post, I didn't know what to stitch so I pulled out a wip - my antique lace canvas project and filled in some more with the dark grey. I'm almost finished filling in this layer, I only have the four little diamonds and the bottom row left to fill in, and then I can move onto the last layer of the project, but probably also the most work intensive... I know that layer with all the white backstitching will take a while... but at least I'm that much closer to being finished!

I didn't get much stitching done this last week, but I did manage to start a new project that has been calling my name for the last few months... it is by Carole aka Novalee02 from her shop. I saw this on her blog a few months ago, and fell in love! Here is my start as well as a small picture of what the entire piece will look like. I just love those little kitties!!!

I've changed some of the recommended DMC colours and I'm stitching it on 32ct hand dyed fabric from Dinkydyes... there is no colour name on the fabric.

That's it for now, I'm off to work on the kitties some more!

Till next time.... happy stitching!

ort report and wips...

First off let's start with the TUSAL... here is my jar as of last night...

Next up, our SAL with Barbi on Elizabeth. I was actually somewhat productive Sunday and got a nice bit done. It helped that I was super tired all day and was nothing but a lump on the couch and stitched between naps! We had a very long night the night before coming home in the wee hours of the early morning Sunday... I'm getting too old for these late nights, and I just can't handle them the way I used to!

And finally what I stitched last week. Since I couldn't decide on what to work on, I pulled out a wip - my Antique Lace canvas project by SJ designs... I last worked on it in February and you can see the before picture here

No the greatest pictures, they all turned out a bit fuzzy no matter how I tried. But you can sort of see in the first one, a somewhat close up, that the dark grey filling has been done up to and including the row of 7 squares - basically the third row down. 5 rows of dark grey filling to go and then I can start the final layer of backstiching filling stitches... not sure I'm looking forward to that as there is quite a bit to do, but it will be pretty when it is finally finished!

Now I'm off to figure out what to work on this week! Till next time happy stitching!

2011 stitching plan...

It seems that everywhere I look on the stitching blogs people have joined in on either the Crazy January Challenge (where you start 15 brand new projects during the first 15 days of January), or the Up for a Challenge (where you list 15 of your various wips and finish those - not sure if you are to finish them in January or through out the rest of the year).

Since I have enough problems of my own with my startitis, and another 15 new starts would be way too much for me, and at the same time, I know I wouldn't be able to list and keep to the list of 15 wips without starting something new.. so I think I 'll just sit on the sidelines and watch everyone else's progress on these Challenges.

I will however outline somesort of stitching plan that I hope to follow this year...

1. I love stitched ornaments (not just Christmas ones) so I thought I would try and stitch at least one a month

2. I have a ton of fantastic freebies just waiting to be stitched, so I will try and squeeze one a month of these as well.

3. Sunday SAL with Barbi -this is going to continue, we're working on Molly by Carriage House Samplings right now, but once she is done, we are moving on to one of the other three girls left in the series, until all 4 are stitched.

4. I have several wips that I would like to either finish or at least make some good progress on this year - I've added their pictures below. Fairy Moon - Mirabila, My Stitching Treasures - Jeanette Douglas, Madonna Dolorosa - Kustom Krafts/Solaria, Heiloom Lace Canvas - SJ Designs, and one more not pictured - Pennsylvania German Alphabet - Goode Huswife (picture in my previous post)

5. I also have at least 3 UFO's (unfinished objects) that haven't seen the light of day in years, let alone have a stitch added to them, that I would like to make a decision about to either finish them or get rid of them... One is my Last Supper, the second is a baby sampler I started years ago, and the last one is ABCD Rouge by Anagram Diffusion.

6. Start whatever new project catches my fancy.

7. After January is over, try to only stitch from stash. I'm giving myself a month grace time for stash shopping. I think out of the entire plan this one will be the hardest to stick to, but I'll give it a shot.

Well see how well I keep on my plan...I'll keep you all updated...

back in cyberland...

I'm back! And almost back to normal! My computer died the day after my last post, and I'm finally up and running again! I wasn't totally gone, I had my the use of my hubby's laptop but I didn't want to fill it with all my stuff, so I tended to just stick to facebook (including my farm on farmville) and reading blogs and emails via webmail.

Its good to be back! Also a good thing that the Saturday prior to my computer dying (still don't know what caused it) I did a backup, so really not much was lost. Now the only thing we need to figure out is how to get my emails and contacts back from the recovery files... we've seem to have gotten everything else but those back... but in time those will be too...


Now on to what I was up to while I was semi computerless... well stitching of course!!!! LOL

Last post, I just put down Quaker Samplings III and was trying to figure out what to work on next... well I decided to pull out a WIP that hasn't been out in a few months, so I grabbed my Antique Lace canvas project. I hadn't worked on this one since October 2009.

I did the filling stitches for the next band down - the one with the flowers in it.

Here it is in its entirety, it looks a little off, as I was leaning over my hubby to take the picture as he held it flat for me.

I still have two bands to fill with the medium grey and then all the little bands need to be filled - those are left black right now, with a darker grey and then I am on the final layer - the backstitch layer which makes it look more lacey... Sadly as much as I enjoy working on this project, I really can't spend a lot of time on it as it seems to make my hands hurt... so this again gets put away for a while...


Next up, is a little freebie I stitched up and made into a scissor fob for a friend's birthday gift.

Its a freebie by Marika Belfiori ( http://www.marikabel.splinder.com/ )stitched over 1 on some mystery 28ct fabric with Ollalieberry Glorianna silk thread (one of my favourite colours by them). There was more to the gift, but I didn't take a picture before giving it to her...

Next up, I decided to again go back to a WIP and I worked on Cappuccino by LHN. Here is that one:

as well as a shot of the whole thing so far:

Well Mother's day came and went, and I didn't get to take any lily of the valley out to my mom, as they are just starting to bloom now. Mother Nature really did a job on us these past few weeks, and really showed us who was in charge. In my last post I mentioned how we had a little spring snow blizzard that weekend, well we managed to get two more of them, the only good thing was that our end of the city didn't get blasted as bad as other parts, though I know the farmers won't complain, as moisture is moisture and they'll take it anyway they can get it. :O)

Knock on wood, we're supposed to have some nice weather the next few days and into the weekend, and we plan on taking full advantage of it! I won't be stitching for a little while now, as the canvas project really took its toll on me, so I'm giving my hands and wrists a little break, at least here at home, since at work I still need to be on the computer.

Anyways, till next time, happy stitching, and happy spring!

*edited to add the website for the freebie, since my link wasn't wanting to work... blogger kept adding the "blogger.com" in front of it

stitching update

It was a wonderful and busy weekend this past weekend. It was also our Thanksgiving long weekend as well as my birthday weekend so it was extra special. However, for now I'll just update you all on my stitching and the rest of the weekend can come later!

Last week, I didn't know what to stitch on, so I pulled a WIP, and worked on that for a little bit. I pulled out the Antique Lace canvas project. I didn't do too much, I did the filling stitches on another band before I put it down. I didn't take it apart to take a full picture, just the band I was working on. To see a picture of the whole thing click here to go to my post when I worked on it last.

Once I finished up that one band, I decided to pull out another Wip, this time my Hungarian Sampler, which I haven't touched since June of last year! I put this one down at the time because I really messed up with the counting/spacing on my fabric, and didn't have enough room to finish it as designed, so I improvised. Here is my version, and a happy dance with my Hungarian Sampler! I stitched it using DMC 310 for the black and DMC 815 for the red.

Because I was working on this one for a happy dance, as well as being fairly busy over the weekend, I didn't work on my LHN Neighbourhood this time round. I really need to start working on this as I'm really falling behind Barbi! Hopefully this Sunday I will be able to get some good stitching time on it.

a new look and some stitching

I thought I would try something a little different with my blog again... hope you like it. I'm still getting used to it, though I know its not a big change, I do prefer the three column templates better. However, this will be good for the next little while.


Onto stitching... I didn't get a lot of stitching done on the weekend, so I don't have a lot of progress to show on the SAL but here it is... I am enjoying this and enjoying the colours. I hope one of these Sunday's I'll have more time to actually sit down and work on it!

For the rest of my time last week, I kept on going with the canvas project, so here is where I am on that one. I still have quite a way to go before its finished, but I'm enjoying working on it right now. Here is a picture of the whole thing, and you can see how much I've already filled in and how much I still need to do before even starting the backstitching parts.

Since I've reached a good stopping point, I'm going to put this aside for a couple of days and go back to my alphabet blocks as those sort of have a deadline (hopefully Christmas) that needs to be met. As it is I'm only half way through the letters but I still need to make a few "filled" in squares as well.

We've also had guests here since last Monday, and they leave tomorrow. Its been fun and nice to have them here, it will also be good when they are gone. The house can go back to normal, and I won't have mountains of dishes to do (they all like to cook and all like to use lots of dishes! - since I don't cook, I'm usually on clean up duty ) Our poor kitty has also gone into hiding (she doesn't like people very much) since they've been here and I hardly get to see her!

Anyways, that is it for now, I'm heading back to stitch...

other stitching updates

Not much has been going on in my world that is really blog worthy, so I won't bore you with those details, however I did manage to do some stitching last week. I really couldn't decide what I wanted to work on, so I finally just pulled out one of my older wips - my antique lace canvas project. I went back through my archive posts and found I haven't really touched this one since March 2008! Over a year ago!

I've been working on the filling in stitches, and if you click on the link I gave above, you can see where I left off last year and where I am now. Don't worry the hearts will show once the whole thing is done, there is still a whole ton of backstitching to do once all of this is filled in. Please ignore the little grey dots/knots you see, as they are just waste knots that I was too lazy to get rid of before taking the picture.

February finishes, March starts and a floss toss

Not much to report other than I'm surprised at how long its been since my last update! Work has been keeping me busy as have our volunteer duties outside of work but other than that not much has been going on other than I've been doing a bunch of stitching.


Weather wise we are now at the other end of the spectum from my "Baby its cold outside post". Then it was around -29 celcius with a wind chill to make it feel like -38 ish and today its a balmy +7celcius. It is a beautiful day out but these frequent weather changes can wreak havoc on a person! No wonder I'm always so headachey!! But I can't complain as it is a beautiful place to live.



Here are my updates... to add to my February finishes (bringing the total to 3) I finished off Little House Needleworks - Schoolgirl Lessons











Its stitched on a mystery 28ct fabric I had with DMC 115 - it took the whole skien stitched over 2 with 2 threads.









Next up is my progress on my spring bouqet, the flowers are now all complete, I just have the border to do. Also up is my progress on the canvas project (Antique Lace). I started some of the filling in, but didn't get very far, as it does tend to hurt my hand since the canvas is so stiff. I'm just going to progress a little at a time on this one till its done.


















Now on to my March starts... I've joined another SAL (actually two) - a Bent Creek SAL for the 2003 snappers and at the same time the Red Thread SAL - also by Bent Creek. I've started an caught up to the first one (2003 snappers), but haven't touched the Red thread one yet... I'm still debating on fabric for that one. Here are some shots of it all together and a close up of each square so far.























































I'm stitching the snappers on 28ct Jubilee called Canada Goose by SMF (Sugar Maple Fabrics) with regular DMC threads. The fabric is a joy to work on, I just love SMF, as well as Jubilee - its one of my favourites.



Then last but not least, my floss toss... I'm going to be starting Megan Fletcher by Lisa Cowell as part of a SAR (stitch-around) with one of the message boards I frequent. Its a mystery 28ct fabric (I'm guessing jobelan from the feel of it) and I'll be using a glorianna silk called ollalieberry.

Stitching update

Just thought I would post a progress picture of my class project (can't really say class anymore, as I've only attended the first one!). This is where I stand as of tonight. I've finished off all of layer 1. Layer 2 is all the filling in stitches and layer 3 has all the "backstitching" and the beads, but those will come later as I am switching projects now.

Here is my progress pic:

Antique Lace Sampler by SJ Designs

Next up in the rotation is my Lanarte Peonies...

Stitching update

Just thought I would post some pictures of my three main WIPS that I would really like to finish as soon as possible.



1. Beading and Canvas class project





I stopped working on it becuase I ran out of beads and it took a while for them to come in, but they are here so I can now finish it off, once it comes back into rotation.











2. Lanarte Peonies





I'm getting close to a happy dance with this one, but again, it just actually has to come up in my rotation. I sort of threw my rotation out the window so I could get my exchanges done in time before the holidays.

3. Heirloom Lace -

another canvas class project started at the end of October.

Other than these three, I do have a few more WIPs that will hopefully see the light of day sometime this year, (not necessarily finish, but make some progress on) as well as several new projects that I would really love to start!