First Feb Finish!

Since my emergency surgery, I have been sleeping a lot which is an unfortunate side effect of the blood loss I had. I say unfortunate in that it has severely limited my stitching time this month. That being said, I am coming along like gang busters now as things are getting slowly back to normal.

I have my first 2 finishes for February:
1.) Celtic Twizzle by Liz Almond from Just Cross Stitch's Marcc/April 2012 Issue. I used the called for DMC and a scrap piece of evenweave from my stash in 32ct.

2.) I also finished one of the Freebies from my retreat in January: The Theme of the Retreat was April in Paris leaning heavily on Red as the accent color. I decided to change it to Blue as I LOVE blue and that is the color of the Eifel Tower in the finish below. It is 2 over 1 on 25ct. scrap even weave.

From my stitch from my stash - These will help my budget.

Otherwise, I am working on a gender neutral baby blanket for a friend who is pregnant. She wants to be surprised so I am knitting another one in a beige and cream color variety.

More to come in the next few days.

Happy Stitching!

2016 Goals

I decided to do some Blog cleaning for the new year just in time for setting goals for 2016. Those goals for 2016 are as follows:

2016 Goals:
Overall:

• Inventory
• Organize, Organize, Organize
• Make an album of Completed Projects
• Bog at least once a week :)

Stitching:

• Take Part in a Stitch Retreat
• Only Stitch from my Considerable Stash
• Make progress on - Brigid's Shamrock and Noah's Submarine
• Finish: ABC's of Family, Santa from H*LL, One Nation, 99
• Ornaments for the kids

Quilting and Sewing:

• 4 quilt tops: A&P, K&C, Mom's and Noel's
• Zipper Pouches
• Organize Scraps
• Farmgirl Vintage and/or Tula Pink's 100 quilt blocks

Yarn:

• Learn to knit Socks
• Complete 2 pairs of Socks
• Complete 3 hats
• 4 baby blankets
• Brother's Quilt
• Dishrag a month
• buy no yarn 

Some of these are going to be rather stretching at this point with my workload from my regular job but I am hoping that I can meet them.

I will be posting updates this week with what I have been working on over the holidays.

Knitting Finishes!

Due to an unexpected death in the DH's family, I was out of town for most of last week and couldn't post. Luckily enough, I was able to craft while I was in the car and I wanted to post about them before I left on vacation tomorrow in the early morning. I completed 2 baby blankets: one "Fruit salad" that I referenced in an earlier post and one Neutrals "sand" for a baby of unknown gender. The colors of "sand" match the baby's room perfectly.

 

 

 

Completed "Fruit Salad"

Completed "Sand"

Fruit Salad was completed in late May 2015 and Sand was completed yesterday 6/10/2015. I also finally tucked in all the ends of my dishrags. Here they are all folded up:

There were 21 total but we took 3 of them when we traveled for the funeral. My DH's family loves them. Well I am off to pack, decide what crafty items I am taking for the road trip.

Happy stitching everyone!

Knitting Progress!

Well...I have been hard at work on knitting baby Blanket's these days when I am not traveling. I remembered to take a progress picture of the first one which I am calling "Fruit Salad":

"Fruit Salad" Baby Blanket - Bernat Babysoft Yarn, size 11 needles

 I have since finished this one and moved onto a gender neutral blanket. I will have pictures in the next week on that one.

Happy Stitching everyone!

30 Days of New Starts - Check-in #3

If I have realized anything in the plan to start/work on different things every day for 30 days...I need to plan...plan...PLAN. I am living by a spreadsheet that I have set-up for myself and I made sure not to inset too many large projects as I always want to work on them more that a few hours each night. As for what I have been working on, here we go:

1/8: Cocoa Mug Cross Stitch: This kit is so much fun. Each of the 6 is relatively small and gives a great sense of accomplishment.

Cocoa Mug - Dimensions Kit?
From my stash

1/9: Red and White Ornament: This ornie is one of my go to designs for each year. There are just so many color ways that can be played with that I am always trying something new.

St. Charles - Ink Circles Designs
Scrap of Linen and Floss from my stash

1/10: Purple baby Blanket: The first baby blanket of the year needs to be completed by 2/9 for a work friend who is having her third child. She is so excited because (in her words), "when you are on #3, no one thinks of really doing anything for you." I am glad I can make her happy.

Purple Blanket
Caron - Simply soft
Basket weave pattern on size 10 needles

1/11: Dish Rag - Block #5 Pinwheel

Pinwheel - Lily's Sugar and Cream Cotton

1/12: Snow Man Ornaments - Ski's - This little guy is from a Herrschners Kit and has a snowman riding on Skis. I made some great progress for only working on it 1 day.

Snowman on Skis
Herrschners ornament Kit

Well, it looks like I am all caught up on my 30 days of projects. I am slightly amazed at what I have been able to accomplish once I put my mind to this endeavor.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

GB Baby Blanket Complete!

Well I did it. I finally completed the Green and Blue (GB for Short) baby blanket. It took me way longer than it should have because I kept working on other things.  You can see a picture of it below:

GB baby blanket
Size 10 needles
Caron Simply Soft yarn - 2 skeins each green and blue

Close up of the pattern

All in all it was a relatively easy knit. I truly love the color selection and it was wonderful to do some boy items since there have been more girls born recently than boys.

Well onto some more projects!
Happy Stitching Everyone.

November WIPocalypse Check in

Well this past month has been a little crazy but I am taking the time to get back to basics of Blogging and checking in for WIPocalypse is step 1 for me. I started with 10 Projects in my list, added 1 and finished 5. That leaves me 6 left and I have spent the last bit of time working on the Pinocchio - When You Wish Upon a Star Kit.

September 30, 2014 Progress

I started with the above picture sometime at the beginning of October.

October 15, 2014 Progress 

I got as far as above in by October 15th. I haven't take a recent picture but I have moved to the Top right portion of the Pattern and found problem. Some of the Floss that was supposed to be in the Kit was missing. I contacted the supplier's customer service line and they were the nicest folks with which to interact. The Missing floss was sent out and I was off again. Then I found a problem again where the colors that were sent didn't match the colors of the floss I was missing for one color. Again, I sent off an email to the Supplier and the floss is in the mail to me. I hope to get it by the weekend so that I can keep working.

In the meantime I have been working on a few other projects:

Bottle Bag - Completed October 20, 2014

A dear friend from work moved into a new home. I was not able to attend her housewarming party but my traditional housewarming gift is a bottle of liquor. I didn't have a bag to wrap it in so I made one from a 1/2 of fabric I had sitting around in my stash. It was super easy and gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I also finished 2 pillows for my mother in this time but I didn't take a picture. :(

GB Baby Blanket
Size 10 needles, Caron simply soft

I have also been hard at work completing the Green Blue (GB) baby blanket for a co-worker and friend. He and his wife are due in Mid-december so I am hoping to finish time one tonight. I apologize for the flash but since the time change it is getting dark so early these days.

So that is my progress report...now on to the prompt for this month;

November 6 - What are your favorite and Least favorite materials to use in your stitching?

I am a huge fan of 18ct/36ct fabric. If I and to choose I would stitch on that almost exclusively. I also like floss from DMC (color palette is immense) and Weeks Dye Works. As for least favorite...I am not a huge fan of evenweave. It never feels like my stitching sits right on it. I am also not a huge fan of metallics. I love how they look but the process of getting there is painful.

Happy Stitching everyone!

November Goals!

I realized that I do much better with monthly goals at staying on task! So here are my goals for the month of November:

November Goals:

1.) complete boys baby blanket (and think of a name while I am at it)
2.) complete seed stitch wrap
3.) complete 2 Christmas ornaments for niece and nephew
4.) blog twice per week including about the Santa from He** project I am finishing.
5.) decide on yearly goals for next year
6.) work on 2 other WIPs

The knitting is daunting but I know I can get it done. Happy stitching everyone!

Monthly Goals Check-in - August (with photos)

My goals for the month of August and whether I met them are as follows:
1.) Blog at least once per week - Nope, I somehow lost the first 2 weeks of the month.
2.) Stitch from my Stash - YES
3.) Make it to one more color change on the seed stitch wrap - YES, barely. That is 2 rows in the cream on the end of the burgundy.

Seed Stitch Wrap
9/1/2014 progress

4.) Start a new baby Blanket - YES, I got 2 rows on the needles and it wasn't even worth taking a picture.

5.) Finish Stitching the Lady and the Flag - YES YES YES. I also got the crazy idea that I should bead it myself. And to be honest, I am not sure I will do something with that much beading again. Maybe it's burnout because I do love the finished product. So without further ado...here it is. ( i polarize for the wrinkles)

The Lady and the Flag - Miribilia
Complete 8/31/2014
Called for DMC and 36ct. Oatmeal Linen

 Here are some close-ups:

6.) 21 pts on the Hitchhiker Shawlette - YES

HitchHiker Shawlette
Progress 9/1/2014

7.) 1 more Christmas Ornament - Nope

So 5 out of 7 isn't horrible so I am happy. September is going to be a rough month for progress as I am traveling for work and taking a vacation with my Family. So here are my goals for September:

September Goals:
1.) Make it to 12" on the Baby Blanket
2.) one more Color change on Seed Stitch Wrap
3.) Complete 2 Christmas Ornaments
4.) Stitch from my stash
5.) Finish Pillows and back on latch hook for my parents.

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!

Pinky Baby Blanket Complete

I finished it last night!!!! I love the how it looks as I wrapped it with some scrap ribbon I had in my stash

Pinky Baby Blanket Complete
Size 10 Needles
Pink/Green Variegated, light pink Baby Bernat

Happy Stitching Everyone!