I've hit the bottom!

First:  Complain, complain, moan, groan, whine.

Now that’s out of the way, it’s time for my 2^nd qtr. Blog post. J

There are finishes to report:

 

The first one took ages. The other two took days. Figures.  The designs are by Heart in Hand from a leaflet called Christmas Triplet.

New Start!

 

You guessed it.  I started Death by Cross Stitch.  The winning color was sapphire by Carrie’s Creations.

After many years of not trying, I’ve finally hit the bottom.

 

Yes, that’s the bottom of the Ballroom picture.  I haven’t worked on it since of course. Still overwhelmed by it I guess. J

Happy Stitching World.

June SAL Updates

Here we are at the end of June.  With an epic burst of speed stitching and an extra day off, I have something to show.

Stitch from Stash
Spent $25                                                                                                                           Earned $6

Yes, I picked up the two magazines I was after.

 

So now I have the 3^rd part of the dollhouse Maria Diaz did for CSC.  I also have this cool beach picture she did in Gold.  Jeez, you’d think I was a fan or something.  But just to prove it, I stitched down to the start of the letters in London! (M. Diaz, CSG USA Issue #37) And the center top is finally finished.

 

I was so pleased; I almost kept working on it.  But then I never would have gotten this post written.  As for what I earned, it came from these.

Smalls SAL

 

The sun piece I finished earlier this month.  June I finished earlier today.  Then I started on July.  I may try to do a Christmas piece next month too.  If I can decide on one in time. J

CSC SAL  

 

Not breaking any speed records with this one, but there is progress here too.  More on the fireplace and above.

That's all for now.  Hope it's a good week for everyone.

Happy stitching World

 

 

 

SALS April Update

Stitch from Stash
$42.00 spent
$10.00 earned
After I bought Baked Alaska, I kept looking for the other pattern I “needed” Rainbow Parfait.  Thanks to one of those magical EBay moments I found it.

 

And along with it I got these.

 

For the price of two patterns.  Like I said, magical. J

Now I haven’t started any of these – yet – but there has been some stitching.

 

My stitching fingers led me to work on the left hand side while the rest of me wondered why I wasn’t finishing that middle section.  No matter, sooner or later it will all get done.

There was another purchase.  I bought this issue of Cross Stitch Gold for the Italian picture by Maria Diaz.

 

In addition to the little bunny I finished earlier and the Smalls piece below there was one more finish.

 

This is the First Doctor as designed by Dork Stitch.

Smalls SAL

I have a finish!

Cross Stitch Collection

A few more columns on the fireplace.  Moving along. J

Happy stitching World

March SALs Update

I guess I’m into minimalism at the moment.

Stitch from Stash – March

$ spent 20.78

$ earned 0

It seems I have a thing for the sales at 123-Stitch lately.  This time I picked up Baked Alaska by Glendon Place and Spot On by Ink Circles.

London moves along.  I made it down to the bottom of the orange on the top right.  Now if I get tired of orange I can start on some blue.

 

Cross Stitch Collection

Three rows this month!  Still waiting for the elves to come and make progress on this.  Until then, this is more than last month so that’s good for me.

 

Smalls SAL

Not so good for me on this.  April isn’t finished yet.  Neither is the little piece that distracted me.  Looking for a finish on at least one by the end of the month.

So, lots of things to work on.  And that’s not counting anything I haven’t started yet. J

Happy stitching World

My SALS Update for February

It seems like just yesterday I had enough time to make all these poses separately.  I think all the snow lately has been too distracting.  Or at least hard to drive through.

SMALLS SAL

I’m working on what I call my seaside calendar.  March is finished.

 

Hopefully before next month is over, it will end up looking like these.

 

I haven’t found the right trim to use as hangers for the monthly pieces yet.  Meanwhile I think the mini easel works well.

 

Stitch from Stash

February spent $16.00, earned $4.00.

This month I spent $16.00 buying some Anchor floss on EBay.  I credit this purchase to not being outbid as much as wanting it.

There’s a little more progress on London to show.

 

Once I realized I wasn’t going to get to the lettering this month, I tried to finish more of the sky across the top.  Here’s what it’s meant to look like when finished.

 

This is part of a series by Maria Diaz that was published by Cross Stitch Gold.

Cross Stitch Collection

For this SAL, I’m supposed to be working on my Ballroom picture.  You may not be able to tell, but there was some small progress this month.

 

There’s some light gray running down the side.  Still looking for the bottom.

Random Things

There were a couple of other things I finished this month.  One was this piece.

 

It’s part of the Redwork Santas series by Prairie Schoolar, Book # 102

Last, but not least.

 

This little bird perches on top a purple mason jar.  It is part of a design by Linda Gillum from the book, 99 Cross Stitch Luvable Pets.  Lots to learn about finishing yet, but I like it.  So does my daughter, which is handy because I gave it to her for Valentine’s Day. J

One last spending note.  I decided what to get with my Christmas gift certificate!  Thanks to the sale at 1-2-3, I’m getting the new Ink Circles Reflections of London, a Whispered in the Wind quilt pattern, a Lizzie Kate Easter pattern and some Threadworx floss that might mean a new start!

Happy stitching World

CSC SAL January 2015

I heard about this SAL on another blog and decided I had to join.  There are two options, large or small.  Ok, three if you do both.  For January at least, I’m going with large.  CSC is very kindly offering The Edwardian Garden Party pattern by Sandy Littlejohn and Deb Lester.  Never being one to turn down a new start, I still decided to go with a different picture.  My Large picture will be the Summer Ball by Sandy Littlejohn.  I started this a long time ago and never worked on it much.  So this is what it looked like at the beginning of January.

 And this is what it looks like now.

 

I’ve almost made it to the bottom of the picture! J

Happy stitching World

May SALs - Smalls and Stitch from Stash

Do you know what happens when you spill cherry kool-aid on white cross stitch fabric?  It turns pink of course.  Fortunately it’s far enough down that I think it can still be used.  Handy since I was making this at the time.

 

Cyberman by Dork Stitch.  That and L*K May earlier make for 2 completions this month!!

Stitch from Stash was good this month.  Or maybe I should say I was no worse than normal.  I spent $17.09.  Early in the month I bought “Surfing the Web” by Randall Spangler during the HAED 50% off sale.  Last weekend I hit the floss sale at Joann’s.  Restraint came from their limited stock and my lack of time to go to any other stores.

At the end of April 123-Stitch had a sale that enticed me to use my Christmas gift certificate.  This is what I decided on.

 

American Flag Quilt Sampler, Quaker gone Tropic and Faith (love the little black sheep).  I really want to start the Quaker piece.  Just need to decide if I like the color variations floss I picked out.

Here’s a nice surprise.  I finally worked on something larger than a small. J

 

This is my Ballroom picture by Sandy Littlejohn.  I took it out one day to put a few more stitches on it and went a little farther than that.

So that’s May all stitched up.  Here’s hoping June is as nice or nicer to us all.

Happy stitching World

Theme-A-Licious Mid April

It’s Amazon April!  So far I’ve worked on my biggest picture, The Summer Ball, twice.  The impressive part of that would be if it was twice as large as it was before.  Not yet, but it is bigger.

 

For my Santa ornament for the month I picked one from the book, 365 Christmas Designs by Kooler Designs.  White on antique white is as much fun as white on white (who knew).  Still, that part is done and things should get more colorful from now on.

 

I leave you today with one final thought.  If it’s the 15^th of April, why is this the view out of my door? J

 

Happy stitching World.

WIPocalypse - December

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

WIPocalypse projects didn’t see too much activity this month.  On the Ballroom picture I filled in a few stitches along the edge and added a little dark brown.

 

On Do Not Disturb I finished the light green on the flip flops. (I know – WOWJ)

 

Mythical Dragon sort of fell by the wayside, but these things will happen.

In the end, no matter how far I didn’t get, everything is farther than it was.  How can you not like that?

I’m thinking of signing up for the sequel.  Next year I’ll just focus on Do Not Disturb.  In between all the other distractions that is!

Happy stitching World.

WIPocalypse August - Part 2

My serial starting ways were in remission this month (for the most part).  I did of course find enough other things to distract myself with to make sure I didn’t get too far with the Summer Ball.

 

 

The good thing is when I make it through the confetti in this little section I’ll be into blocks of longer lines.  Those are much better for my sense of progress. J

 Happy stitching World.

WIPocalypse August Part 1

Stunning things would happen to this – if I worked on it more. J

That might be considered a side effect of starting too many things.  But I’m pretty sure there’s no cure for that except to just keep stitching!

Happy stitching World!

July WIPocalypse

Welcome to the first month of the last half of the year.  June ended much as it began, with my wandering eye looking at things to start rather than continue.  I am pleased with the progress I did make.  On the Ballroom picture I have finished the mirror over the fireplace and moved on to the wall.  Look – dark green! J

 More sand and flip flops to show on Do Not Disturb.

 So now onward to see what the next month has in store.

Happy stitching World.

Short, sweet and a little late

Don’t you just love good intentions?  They’re as cute as days of the week and as slippery.  I got a case of start-itis after my last WIPocalypse post, and while trying to fight that off (except for Fragile) didn’t work on much of anything.  Certainly not every day.  I did get the Ball room picture out and managed to get it back to, and a tiny bit beyond where it was before.

So my goal for June is to just keep stitching. J Hope you all have a great month with your WIPocalypse projects.

Happy stitching World

WIPocalypse April

Let’s jump in:

Ballroom:

I think there was more progress on this before I went to work on it again. That’s when I discovered there were two extra rows in it.  (I blame those stitching elves – such pranksters!)  The best part (?) is that the two rows were over in the white and blue section on the edge. So now I can fix those two stitches I put in with the wrong color earlier. Joy. J

Mythical Dragon:

I’m not sure about this one.  Working with all that filament is just not fun.  I use that Thread Heaven which helps some but it just doesn’t look good to me.  I’ll have to find a different way to work this.

Do Not Disturb:

Nothing much new with this one. I did get a little farther on the flip flops.  Next I may try to go back to the sand.

That’s all for this month.

 Happy stitching World.

WIPocalypse - Feb - Tiki Stitches

Project 1 – Ballroom

There are two things about this that are hard to believe.  One is that after all those years of sitting around it’s become twice as large as it was.  The second is that I’ve messed it up already.  Actually that part I believe.  For the sake of progress those two stitches will just have to stay the way they are.

Project 2 – Mythical Dragon

I thought I could move this out in two directions.  Quickly learning the error of my ways I settled for one.  So now we have the top of one wing.  Part of it anyway.  Very soon I should be able to answer the question of which is more annoying – confetti stitches or half stitches in 3 or 4 strands.

Project 3 – Do Not Disturb

It looks like I took the title a little too seriously.  Still there’s some sand on the bottom.  If I need a different color I can start on the green flip flops.

That’s all for this month.

Happy stitching World.

WIPocalypse post #1 January

So it begins.  The epic battle to see which one of these three pictures I stop working on first. J  They’re neck and neck at the moment which is fine by me.  For all I haven’t done on them I was still ready to keep going.  Darn all those other things you’re supposed to do every day.

1. Summer Ball

I took this off the stretcher bars I had it tacked to so I could try to wash out this stain on the fabric.  That almost worked but I haven’t put it back on the stretcher bars yet.  I did manage to put some white in the mirror on the corner.

2. Mythical Dragon

I started this one in the middle.  Mostly because it seemed like the best place.  The green blob is going to grow up to become a dragon.  A very shiny dragon since it calls for two strands of filament and only one of floss.

3. Do Not Disturb

This one was started at the bottom.  Once again because it seemed like the best place and not just because I’m out to confuse myself.  That will happen soon enough I’m sure.

That’s all for now.  Next month’s update will (hopefully) have fewer words and more stitching to show.

Happy stitching World.