hello february

I didn't post last Monday, as I didn't have anything new to show.

I didn't get anything done on our Sunday SAL as my husband took me out on a surprise date - dinner and the theatre so zero stitching.

This week, is different... I continued to work on Autumn Quakers a bit, and here is where I stand with that one...

I've reached the top of the pattern, and added the date.  As you can see I am planning on finishing it this year!  Hopefully sooner rather than later in the year too.

Then I pulled out another wip to give it some love for a couple of days as well.... this time Sunflower Bouquet by Lanarte.

Again, I made some progress, and am getting close to a finish on this one as well.

And last but definitely not least, our Sunday SAL... Portrait of Veronica... I didn't get much time to work on her yesterday but I did put some stitches in... and here is where I got...

Not sure what is on the stitching agenda this week... but until next time happy stitching!

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!

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 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!

 

sunday sal and other wips

well here we are again!  time for a sunday sal update!

I didn't get as much time to stitch as I had hoped to yesterday, but I still was able to get a few stitches in Cornwall Cottage.

 

 

I am looking forward to seeing how Barbi and Linda did this weekend!

I also managed to put in a few stitches in an older wip last week... I pulled out Autumn Quakers, also by Rosewood Manor, and got a nice chunk in that one done too, however that pesky frog came for a visit and took a bite out of my Autumn Quakers...

I've reached the bottom left corner of the pattern, and that big bottom motif is 2 stitches off... now that doesn't seem like a big deal in the larger scheme of things, however, being off throws the rest of the motifs off in the pattern that are to the right of it... Since it is stitched in Valdini thread (read awesome but expensive thread) I haven't decided what I'm going to do... Right now I'm leaning towards working on the rest of it, going down on the right side and then fudging the stuff in the middle, but we will see... I've put it aside, as the mistake is just glaring at me, and I can't seem to see around it...
So what is a girl to do when the frog attacks... well, it's start another project or two, and that is exactly what I did!

I started a crochet project... it will be a blanket of some sort... just not sure how or how big yet...

I have a little more done since taking the picture...

And I also started another cross stitch project... this one is La-D-Da's Harvest House...

this is what it will look like when done...

and this is a quick progress pic of what I had done up to Saturday night...

I'm stitching it on Crafty Kitten's 32ct Jurassic sands jobelan and using a combination of Nina's, GAST and WDW threads...

That's it for now, till next time happy stitching!

ort report, wips, dancing and a pay-it foward

I have a few things to show... I know I've been neglecting my blog lately, but as I've said before that doesn't mean I'm not stitching!

First of here is this month's ort report...

Nice and full!

I started a new project this month... Rosewood Manor's Autumn Quaker...  Here is where I am... I don't follow instructions all that well, so I started in the middle... not the top left corner...

I am loving the valdini threads that the pattern calls for... I can see more of those in my future!

I've also been plugging along on Humbolt coast... still not done, but each stitch is a step closer!  I've really lost my stitching mojo with this one... I just don't want to work on it anymore...but it's such a great piece, that it would be a shame not to finish it very soon!

I also have a finish/happy dance!  I finished this one last night... so it is hot off the qsnaps!
It's Cardinal Sampler from the 1994 Nov/Dec issue of BH&G CS&CC magazine...

Please excuse the picture.. I forgot to edit it before I uploaded it... *blush*

There is a ton of backstitch on this thing, literally everything is backstitched!  I added beads in the border for the holly berries so spruce things up a bit as well... I didn't want to add my initials or anything, so I just added the 2014 in the blank spaces.

And last but not least... I am having a pay-it-forward, give away... I was gifted the pattern for the Cardinal Sampler design by another stitcher - the pages are from the original magazine, so if you are interested in stitching this, please just leave a comment on this post, and I will pull a name if there is more than 1 person interested and send it off to you... My only request is that once you stitch it, you pay it forward as well.  I will take comments until Sunday night June 1st.