Long Time...no Blogging - WIPocalypse and TurtleTrot check in

Well...It's been almost 3 weeks since I blogged last and I am going to try to catalogue what has been happening.

First..the week of September 29th, I went on Vacation with my entire family to Florida. We went to Ormond Beach which was delightful. The weather was manageable, the niece and nephew handled the plane rides like champs and I even explored a local yarn store in the area called "A Ball of Yarn." I did manage a few stitches on a Christmas ornament Whimsies pattern but it wasn't even worth taking a picture. My dear SIL's father took a turn for the worse so she left and it was all hands on deck with the kids. I can say it gave me a much greater appreciate for the innocence of kids. :)

Then, once I came back, I have been a working fool at my day job. I am an engineer and have been putting in 10-12 hour days. That is not to say I haven't been stitching when I have time but the progress is not the greatest unfortunately. Here are some progress pics below:

1.) Pinocchio's When You Wish Upon a Star

Last Check in - February 2014

September 30, 2014 Progress Picture

October 15, 2014 Progress Picture

You may notice that I changed how the grid was marked between the January and October Pictures. I found that the Soluble blue pen is better for this design. Also, I received an award at my day job that lead to an amazon gift card. I used that the purchase a few of the Thomas Kinkade Disney Kits I didn't already have: Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, and The Disney Castle.

I also worked on a new Quilt top and finished piecing it entirely. I just sent an email off to my long armer about when I can drop off the one pictured below:

Riley Blake - Evening Fat Quarter Bundle

My Goal is to give it to my grandmother for Christmas this year.

I also have been knitting on the seed stitch wrap. The color order was brown, taupe, cream, red, cream, taupe, brown. I have completed the transition from Cream to taupe and have done about 3 inches on the Taupe. I forgot to take a picture of this one as well as the baby blanket that I am halfway on.

My hope is that I can use this post to check in for WIPocaplypse and TurtleTrot to get up to date thus far. I also need to get back into the Monthly goals realm because it keeps me accountable to finishing things.

Here are my answers for the WIPocalypse Prompts I have missed:

August 10 – Topic:  Tell us about your oldest and newest WIPs.

    My newest WIP is the Pinocchio project early this year. My oldest WIP is the Resting Tiger that is referenced on my WIP page. 
September 9 – Topic: Who is your favourite person to stitch for, or do you prefer to keep your stitching yourself?

  My favorite person to stitch for is either my grandmother or one of my parents. They love everything I do so that makes it enjoyable.October 8 – Topic:  Are you a Halloween or Christmas stitcher?

   I am a huge Christmas stitcher. I love the small satisfaction of finishing Christmas ornaments.

 

Happy Stitching!

I-75 Yarn Crawl Follow-up

The I-75 yarn crawl is a Yarn store shop hop for stores all up and down Interstate 75 in Ohio and Northern Kentucky.  It took place August 5-9, 2014. For information, you can click on the following Link. There 17 stores that participated this year and I was able to make it to 10 of them. My DH drove me to 6 of them on Saturday alone. I am not sure that I could make it to all 17 of them without taking a day off of work which will not work for me. Each of the stores had a knit and crochet pattern and some had great deals. The overall crawl was great and I always said I wanted to make one of these shop hops on my bucket list.

I was very intrigued with a Trunk show for Interlacements Yarn at The Rabbit Hutch in Englewood, OH. My husband bought a few things for me that were on my Birthday list and I am patiently waiting for them until the end of October. The ladies at the hutch were so nice as well. They were very inviting to my husband who was there to support me :).

I also loved the feel of The Lion and Lamb Yarn Shop in Troy, Ohio. They are a relatively new shop and it was very smartly arranged.

Finally, I love the Wooly Bully Yarn Co. in Springboro. The ladies there are wonderful so I am excited to take a few classes there when I am not traveling for work so much.

I apologize the recap of the Yarn crawl was late. I have been on the go since the event happened and as a matter a fact I am in a hotel room traveling for work and forgot to bring any crafting with me. This is a travesty in my eyes. So...I am planning out gift giving and trying to find patterns for my niece's and nephew's Christmas ornaments this year.

I get home late on Tuesday so...Stitching will be on like gangbusters then.

Happy stitching!

I-75 Yarn Crawl

August 5-9 is the I-75 Yarn Crawl here in Ohio. You spend $5.00 to buy a passport and visit stores to get it stamped. At the last store you visit in this time frame you turn in the passport to be entered for some drawings. I started by visiting the 2 stores closest to my house and work on 8/5 - Main Street Yarns and Silk Road Textiles. My dear husband is going to drive me to about 8 of them on Saturday. I am looking forward to exploring some other Local yarn stores.

Happy Stitching everyone !

July Goals

I figured I should check in on my May Goals (yes..A month Late) before I lay out my July Goals. So away we go:

May Goals Check in:
1.) Complete Winter Mandala: DONE
2.) Complete Binding on Patriotic Table Runner: DONE (my MIL loved the table runner as it was a gift for her birthday. I forgot to get a picture so I will have to have her send me one)
3.) Complete Christmas Table Runner Top and Quilt it: Top done but Not Quilted together so HALF DONE
4.) Complete Geometric Placemats: Didn't even touch them in 2 months (yikes!)
5.) Complete 10 inches of the seed stitch wrap: DONE (it now measures 15" and 10" of it was finished by 5/28)
6.) Work on Another WIP - Worked on Dream Catcher: DONE
7.) Stich from my Stash - May: DONE and June: Not even close

Since I will be back in my home for the bulk of July, I have decided to set some daunting goals for July.

July Goals:
1.) Complete Christmas Table Runner
2.) Complete geometric Placemats
3.) Knit 10" more on Seed Stitch Wrap
4.) Finish Dream Catcher
5.) Complete Stitching on Lady and the Flag - my MIL wants to do the beading on her
6.) Blog at least once a week.
7.) Stich from my Stash - Spend nothing
8.) Start on a new baby blanket - Already assigned to a future little man.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Stich from my Stash! (i.e. The bank is broken)

Thankfully...we are allowed one month off of the Stitch from my Stash rules because I broke the bank this month. If you remember from my traveling stash addition posts (1 and 2) from my trip to Gatlinburg, I picked up yarn, fabric, and cross stitch items. To follow Debbie's lead I will use the $ to sum it all up.

Carryover: $85.89
June budget: $75.00
Amount Spent: $$$$
Total Carryover to July: $0.00

Gatlinburg:

• Mountain Stitches by Sue - $$$
• Zoe's Quilts - $
• Smokey Mountain Spinnery - $$
• The Needlework Cottage - $$$
• CrossThreads Needlework - $

Since I knew I already was not following the program for this month, I allowed my dear mother-in-law to enable my stash addiction further. Go big or go home right? We visited some Local stores in the Cinncinnati/Dayton Area to support our addiction and the local small craft stores. I didn't take pictures of everything but here are a few:

• Fabric Shack - $$$: I bought some patterns to use up some of the fabric that I have recently purchased. (and a little fabric too.) I saw the "Button Up" and "Touchdown" patterns on Cluck Cluck Sew's Blog so I had to buy them when I saw them. I also bought some "Art Gallery" fabric yardage.

Quilt Patterns from the Fabric Shack

Art Gallery Yardage

• Kathryn's Web - $$: I bought a few Hanks of yarn that were too beautiful to pass up. This is where my MIL is a huge enabler. She is also a knitter and I learned a lot of Technique from her. She loves to see me knit beautiful things. The two bright blue hanks were sock yarn with which I am going to make a scarf. The two larger different hanks are called Irish Linen by Tracey Schuh. The color ways were too beautiful to ignore.

Irish Linen and some sock yarn

• Wooly Bully Yarn Company - $ (the only reason it wasn't larger is my MIL bought most of it): I don't have pictures to show of the yarn as it is all for gifts and someone who is receiving one may read this blog. :)

New Starts: Nothing - I spent too much time shopping and traveling

UFOs and WIPs worked on: Dreamcatcher, Prayer shawl (seed stitch wrap)

Completed Items: Curtains for my niece

I will try to post later today when I determine what my goals are for the upcoming month with regards to all my crafts. I realized just now that I never posted progress on my May Goals (EEK)

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Finally some progress pics with a little stash addition!

So I finally remembered to take a few progress pics from the projects I have been working on. First up is the wrap that I am making for my grandmother. I am using the colors below to make it. They are Cascade yarns - merino wool and silk blend.

I have made it through one and a third of the stripes. My progress can be seen below:

I also took a picture of the Dreamcatcher:

The picture is really dark but I am well past the halfway point. I have finished the 2 dreamcatchers in the upper corners and am working on the center motif and border down the sides. My goal for completion on this one is end of July.

Happy stitching everyone!

Long time no Blogging :( and some traveling stash addition!

It seems that as the weather has gotten better my life has gotten infinitely more busy! It has been 3 weeks (less 1 day) since I last blogged. Part of that has to do with a planned vacation to Gatlinburg, TN which was delightful. The other 3 unexpected trips for work not so much. I am going to split my updates into a few days until I get my self back on track.

My dear husband, parents, and myself went to TN for 5 days. I had never been there and it was beautiful. I loved being in the wilderness where our lodge was located. Weather wise it was very humid and warm so a storm would pop up now and then. Prior to our trip I did some research on the local arts and crafts scene which was plentiful. I had my trusty list of stores to shop at to see if some random stash addition was possible. In case those of you reading are unaware, Gatlinburg has one of the largest arts and crafts communities in the 48 continuous United States. I was hoping they sold supplies as well as finished items. (I decided halfway through the trip that this month 5/28-6/28 will be my free month on Stitch from my stash).

My first stop was Smokey Mountain Spinnery. We stopped there first thing as their hours were until 5 pm on Thursday and the store was close to our lodge. The ladies there were very helpful and I made sure to keep my purchases to something that I couldn't find in the LYS's near my home.

RSA - Smokey Mountain Spinnery

The 2 balls on the right are Saki Silk by Wisdom Yarn in Big Volcano and Hidden Lagoon. The one on the left is from a local yarn (fiber and spinner) in Knoxville, TN. The color way is "Johnny Jump Ups" and the company is called Tale Spun Yarns.

The second stop in the crafting part of the Journey was The Needlework Cottage. We stopped there on the way to Cades Cove. It had supplies for a variety of different needle crafts. I picked up the following:

I had been looking for some patriotic ones to eventually make into gifts. The last one of the United State was something my husband was adamant about me picking up. I have learned in our 7 years of marriage to not fight him when he picks something for me to work on. This was also a local chart which has distribution out of the Needlecraft Cottage.

As we made the drive back through downtown Gatlinburg, my mom saw a sign for a needlework store in the Mall area. We decided to stop there before dinner that night. The little store is called Crossthreads Needlework. They were a store just starting out but had a nice variety of patterns as well as a great selection of over dyed floss. I picked up a few patterns there too:

I always seem to pick up celtic patterns wherever I go. I have also been looking for the Lizzie and Kate ABC's for awhile.

I have decided that I am going to split this post up so it's not too picture heavy. I hope you all have had a wonderful few weeks! I look forward to catching up on all the progress. Happy Stitching everyone! 

TUSAL and Progress Pics - April 2014

I have some progress to show on 2 projects. First, the Winter mandala. I have completed the black outline and started some of the colors.

Winter Mandala by Ink Circles
16ct. white AIDA
DMC floss as called for

I also started a new knitting project. I am using the seed stitch scarf pattern found here. The picture below shows the first color sitting on a scrap piece of tan colored linen. The color is vandyke brown and is Venezia Yarn from Cascade yarns.

Seed Stitch Scarf
Cascade Yarns Venezia
Size 10 needles

I remembered to take a picture of the ORTs from my sewing endeavors. These scraps are the ones that I throw away and do not put in my scrap bins. They are mainly coming from the placemats I made and the patriotic table runner. I need to remember to take a picture of my cross stitching ORTs.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Late TUSAL

I totally took a picture for TUSAL (if you want to know more, click Here). It was supposed to be posted on March 30th but I guess 15 days late isn't horrible.

3/30/14 TUSAL

It's mainly some ORTs from weaving in some of the ends on the blankets and a little from the Dream catcher project. Hopefully I will have some progress to show on some WIPocalypse projects.

Happy stitching!

Knitting and Local store find

Awhile back I went to a local yarn store and bought some skeins/hanks of yarn that until recently I had totally forgot about. As I have been working through my stash inventory project, I found the purchases and wanted to share them with you all!

I do have a plan for most of them:
Top skien - Green and blue variegated sock yarn which I am going to use to attempt my first pair of knit socks
3 balls on the left of a beautiful washable wool - Scarf for me (they are my favorite colors :))
6 smaller balls in the top right - Scarf for an aunt who loves that color pallet
3 skiens in the front - going to attempt a lacy scarf with one to see how it works...otherwise combine them into other projects

They were all purchased at Lambikin's Hideaway. It is one of the yarn shops taking part in the I-75 yarn crawl on August 8-10. I found a few more yarn stores around this time a few months ago and made a few purchases. As I find those items in my stash, I will share them on this blog.

I also completed another dishrag:

Knit Dishrag
Pattern design - Me
Craftways Cotton yarn

As for cross stitching and other projects:

Birth announcement : I am about 2 hours away from completing the cross stitch portion. I plan on taking a picture tonight and posting again here in a few days.

Baby Blanket: My sister-in-law chose a color palette for the new baby's room and I cast on the beginning of the blanket. I will post when I do the first color change in a few hours of work.

All in all, it was a productive week. Happy stitching everyone!