Weekend Recap

I finished up the March "A Year of Celebrations" design this weekend.  2 days to spare!  I haven't started the April design yet because I need to dig around to find some higher count fabric.  Several of the frames I bought cover up a bit of the design, so I need to do a few that will turn out smaller.  I know I have some extra 18 count in the craft room somewhere, just need to find it.

I didn't spend as much time working on Paul's stocking as I hoped, but I did get quite a bit done on the snowman's head.  You can see the beginnings of his face now.  I also spent a bit of time picking out all the half cross stitches I had completed.  I had stitched them all using 3 strands of floss, but it was only supposed to be 1.  Sigh.  Oh well, better to discover that now than after I had too much more stitched up.

I spent some time working on the Blackberry House sampler and the Joyful World Calendar too, but I will save blogging about them for another day.

I really shouldn't have, because I have way too many projects in progress already, but I started something new this weekend.  Not my fault though.  I blame this completely on Paul.  He knows I have too many things going, but came home with a request from a co-worker to make her a bunny for her son for Easter.  A green bunny with floppy ears.  This won't take long to complete, just need to crochet a bit every day or so.  The head is almost complete.  I need to go find the eyes and noses I'm sure I have before going any further though, or I won't be able to attach them.

HAED ASiT 2/2016 Update

I need to take photos of these a bit further away and quit zooming in so close.  Some of the detail is lost in these closeup photos.  Oh well, next time.

I got more stitched on A Stitch in Time this week than I originally thought I would.  Normally, I would still be stitching on the current rotation on Friday, but I decided I was going to start rotating on Friday morning instead of Monday morning.  That way I can blog about my progress at the end of the week instead of lumping everything together into a post on Monday.

I was able to get 2,220 stitches completed, which gave me a page finish last night.  The bottom row of pages on this are smaller, just shy of 1/2 the size of all the others.  At my current rate of stitching speed and rotation, this is estimated to be complete in January 2029.  LOL!  This will change at some point, of course, as I work on it more often.

I'm only working on this currently once every 4 weeks, as I have 2 other projects that I wanted to work on.  One of those is also being worked on every 4 weeks, and the other is being worked on every other week.  As I finish a project, I will decide whether to add in a new one, or just rotate between two.  Knowing me, I'll add in another to the rotation, and move something new into the every other week spot.  Hopefully I can keep to this rotation and not add in too many new starts.

I love how the fox turned out!  It is so adorable.  The white on the far left side is a tree trunk.  I'm not positive, but I believe the blue and turquoise are book spines, and it looks like the blue and white to the right of the fox is a lady working on needlework.  I think I can see an arm and a hand near the top of the stitching.  The white looks like it may be an apron over a long dress, and the grey/green look like the stitching.  I refuse to look at the cover art because I want to be surprised as details come to life on this.  Book spines are a logical guess because this is a bookshelf chart, and the lady working on her needlework is a logical guess because there are little scenes of this exact thing throughout the shelves.

This week I am back to working on Enchanted Christmas.  Ah, 14 count fabric!  Such a nice break from working on that 28 count.

Fox In Sox

I didn't quite get the fox completed, but you can certainly tell that's what it is.  This pattern is going to be so much fun to work on.  So many little surprises waiting to show themselves as soon as I take a step away from the work.

Not a lot more to blog about today, but I did finish up the lighter green on the March cross stitch.  If I don't get this finished before, I may dedicate Friday to working on this so it's ready to display on the 1st.

Weekend Recap

I made quite a bit of progress on Enchanted Christmas last week.  Just a couple more blocks and the sleigh will really start to take shape.  Still loving this project, and still want to get it done quickly, but I'm putting it away this week. I don't want to work on any one project so long I get burned out and lose interest.  That's what happened last year with the cross stitching, and I wound up putting all of it away for most of the year.  Slow and steady wins the race in this case.

I don't have a progress photo to share yet, but this week I'll be working on A Stitch In Time.  This is one of two bookshelf designs I will be stitching.  The artwork is by Aimee Stewart.  I currently have 3 charts of artwork by her.  Must figure out a way to live to be 200 so I can stitch all these lovely charts I have.  I started this one in the bottom left corner, and today should see the little fox stitched.  Progress photo tomorrow.

Just a tad bit of progress to show on Blackberry House.  I had done about half of the border across the top, then decided I wasn't caring much for the color I chose.  I was planning to use whatever colors I had in stash, but when I didn't like what I had stitched, I picked it all out and ran to JoAnn's for the called for DMC colors.  Much happier with it now, and hey, the stash only grew by about 7 skeins.  That's not too bad.

I finished up 3 colors on the little March pattern last week.  Started working on the next one after snapping this photo.  Hoping to have all the green finished this week.  I'm trying to stitch one strand every day to keep progressing on these.  Plus, I will be working on these during my Tuesday Skype sessions.

Made progress this weekend on Paul's stocking.  Spent most of my stitching time working on the little boy this time.  This is going much faster than I remembered it going when I first started it.  Could it be that working on those gigantic HAED charts has changed my perspective a bit?  Still enjoying working on this one, so it's going to remain my weekend project for awhile yet.

I finished the applique on the March wall quilt yesterday.  This is now layered and ready for quilting.  The sewing machine is all threaded up and ready to go.  I should get this one done this week, just in time to hang for March.  I think I'll finish up the February one after that, then move on to April.  I've also cut out all the base pieces for May and June.  I finally feel like I'm a bit ahead of the game on this project.

Wall Quilts

I spent a bit of time in the sewing room yesterday, and snapped a few photos since I had everything out.

February's is all set to be quilted.  I've set it aside until March is complete though.  It shouldn't take very long to quilt this since I'm doing them by machine, but the March quilt has oodles of applique pieces, so it's taking a bit longer than the other ones.

I have started on the applique for March.  The little border squares are all done, as are the tree trunk and branches.  This one has a lot of layered pieces, so I can't just lay them all out and iron away like I was able to do for most of the other quilts.  I got a bit carried away last night when putting the leaves on.  I only meant to do the ones you see pictured on the left side, but wound up doing all of them.  Oops, now I need to be a bit careful since I hadn't finished with the birdhouse.  Knew I shouldn't have started on those leaves until I had the birdhouse done, but figured I could start since the iron was hot.  It will take me a couple of days to finish sewing around the pieces that are already on this since I'm not spending a lot of time downstairs this time of year.  It gets cold down there!  I've been doing a bit each time I go down to do a load of laundry.

April's base is completed and ready for applique pieces.  I need to get some more fusible webbing before starting on those pieces.  Since I have to wait on that, I looked ahead at other months to see if I had the right fabrics to complete their bases.  I just might have the right ones for May and June.  Getting the bases out of the way will help speed things up later.

I completed about 600 stitches on the reindeer yesterday.  I got lucky and hit some areas where there weren't a ton of color changes so things went a bit faster.  I think I'm going to continue filling in the area in the center and work my way back over to the right side where the sleigh is.

Weekend Recap

I decided to put Basilisk away Friday morning so I could catch up a bit on monthly themed projects.  I don't have photos yet, but I did get quite a bit done on the quilted wall hangings.  February is all appliqued and ready to be quilted, the base for both March and April are pieced, and I've begun the applique for March.  I've decided to concentrate more on March now instead of trying to finish up February.  I will probably only be able to get one completed by month's end, so I'd rather it be the one I will hang next instead of one that will be put away for next year.  I'll come back to February and work on it when I get a bit ahead of the game.

I also worked on the February cross stitch design until it was finished.  Now I just need a frame for it.  I'll be out and about later this week, so I'll pick up a couple of them.

I managed to get a bit of the March design done too.  I'm going to leave the supplies for these out instead of tucking them away.  That way, I can work on them when I have a time to stitch, but not enough time to make headway on the big HAED projects.

I'm still plugging away a bit each day on Paul's sweater.  Just about to the point where I start working on the body and skip the sleeve stitches.

I love this pattern, and the yarn I'm using.  Here's a bit closer look at the pattern stitches used.  It's hard to tell in these photos, but the top portion is ribbed using post stitches.

Because I'm never happy with just 100 projects, I started 2 more.  These will be worked on primarily on the weekends, but I may pull them out when my eyeballs need a break from reading HAED charts.

The first is a Plum Street design that I am doing as a SAL with my friends, Amanda and Brandi.  We have agreed to show our progress each Friday on Facebook to keep each other accountable for finishing.  I am in love with this design company and will most likely be purchasing more of their patterns.

The second is a SAL that I discovered when the Facebook group popped up as a suggestion for me.  It is a free monthly calendar SAL found on The Snowflower Diaries blog.  I'm planning to stitch them all as one piece and have it framed.  I'm stitching this over 2 on 28ct, so I need to find a pretty big spot on the wall to hang it.

I made some progress on Paul's stocking this weekend too.  I might have to work on the little boy next weekend so he starts showing up better.

This week I'm back to working on Ornament Enchanted Reindeer.  Working on Basilisk last week was a nice break, but I really want the reindeer done this year, so it's back on the frame.  I also made the decision to restart two more of the HAED projects at some point in the future.  While I really love the reindeer, and it is being worked on 14ct Aida, I find that I much prefer the look of these pieces on 18ct and higher fabric, with 18ct being my preferred choice as I don't have to use my magnifying lamp.  Both Mini Gone Fishin' and Mini Bottom of the Garden were started on 14ct. and I'm not caring for the coverage I'm getting.  I will most likely restart one of them, along with a new chart I purchased recently, later this year when I complete the reindeer.

Lots of Stitchy Goodness

Last year when I was sorting through all my craft magazine deciding which to keep and which to toss, I came across this adorable series of monthly patterns and just had to make them.  My plan was to work on them every Tuesday when I was doing my weekly Skype session with my mother and Amanda.  This was around October, and I started with the December pattern to give myself plenty of wiggle room to get each completed in enough time to be framed and displayed in its proper month.

I managed to finish the December one in plenty of time, and then as is the custom, another bright shiny new project called my name, and since these are so small and can be finished quickly, I decided working on them could be put off for awhile.

The January one was finally completed and framed about a week into the month.

 February still isn't complete, but I pulled it out and will work on it today until it is finished.

Then, I think I might skip a couple of months and jump into working on May to give myself some time to get them complete.  Or maybe not. I work pretty well with looming deadlines, it's the "if I work on this 2 hours per week I can have it done in 6 months" kind of thing that gets me in trouble.

When I tried to get a progress photo of Basilisk last night, I noticed that the clips I'm using to keep the extra fabric rolled up and out of the way look a lot like spiders from this angle.  Creepy!  Good thing that isn't the way I see them when I'm stitching, or nothing would get done.

Am I the only one who sees this?  It's not so bad on the lighter one.  Maybe I should go buy another of those and get rid of the dark one?

Basilisk is really starting to come alive now.  When I take a step or two back, I can see the flowers and blue jay, and now the tree trunks are really starting to show up.  I can't wait to get to the next page and see the lady's face take shape.  I will probably put this one away for a bit next week though.  I really want to get Enchanted Reindeer finished by end of June, and it needs some attention so it doesn't fall behind.