Long Time no Post

It has been over a year since I posted on here last but I wanted to restart this to keep myself up to date on  various Crafting Projects and Stitch-a-longs. My last post on here was 9/27/2017 so definitely too long.  I figured I would split this up into multiple sections to get caught up:

1. Goals
2. SALs
3. Stash Report


1. GOALS:
    Cross Stitching:

• Year of Ink Circles: All new starts for the year must be Ink Circles patterns
• Stitch from Stash: no new Patterns, floss and or fabric except fabric of the month from Under the Sea Fabrics and Seraphim Hand-dyed Fabrics. This will be tracked via a facebook group.
• Finish #stitch9challenge sponsored by @farmgirl on instagram
• Make Progress on my WIPocalypse.
• Organize my craft studio

    Quilting:

• Complete 5 Quilt tops this calendar year
• Complete 2 table runner commissions
• Complete Baby Quilts as needed

    Knitting

• Knit a Dishrag a month
• Complete 3 pairs of socks this year
• Complete Baby Blankets as needed
• Complete one knitted wrap this year

2. SALs

• Stitch9challenge: finish the 9 projects I identified which are:
• Heart of the Home by Stitchrovia
• ABC's of Halloween by Lizzie Kate
• Pretty Little Tokyo by Satsuma Street
• Pretty Little Sydney by Satsuma Street
• Cirque des Coeurs by Ink Circles
• Chalkboard Mandala by Ink Circles
• Tapestry by Ink Circles
• Coastal Cola by Silver Creek Samplers
• Autumn Sampler (blue Colorway) by *** (I will add it in later)
• WIPocalypse: Try to finish at least 10 projects. I will use the above plus Rosie the Riveter by Hornswoggle studios.
• Magical Stitches and Literature Challenge on Facebook.
• weekly/monthly/yearly challenges for reading and stitching related to the Harry Potter books.

3.Stash Report

• Report monthly purchase and usage of Fabric, Floss, and Yarn.

I will be updating the background, sidebars, and pages of this document in the near future.

Happy Stitching!

Quilting Progress!

I finished the Following Quilt Tops over a sewing weekend with my Aunt:

Jelly Roll Race v1

 This was the first jelly roll Race Quilt Top I ever finished. It was fun but very hard to keep the initial first few seams straight. I think I am going to try another one in the future as I got an extension table for my sewing machine that I LOVE LOVE LOVE.

NOEL -

I actually completed 2 of these Tops. One will be for my Grandmother in Law and one will be for my Mother in Law. Never never again will I make 2 of something.

All in all a productive weekend as I was able to cross 2 things off my to do list!

Happy Stitching!

August and September Stitching Updates

Well it has been a long time since I last Updated but I do Have a lot to share! My plan is to get caught up in a few posts. I am going to recommit to my Crafting Blog as I really need it to help me stay on task.

Cross-Stitching:
I have been working heavily on 2 projects:

Brigid's Shamrock

This is a HAED pattern that uses DMC threads and I chose to put it on 18CT AIDA as it is 100% Coverage. The Pciture above was the starting point in July. I worked on this project on 2 summer stitch days sponsored by my LNS and got to this point:

Then I spent concentrated time on the project in August and some of September am at this point currently:

My plan is to get to 1/4 complete before I move to another Focus project for awhile. I have already consumed 5 Skiens of DMC (2 black, 1 each of white, 906 and 907). I also made the grime guard on my Qsnap as well :)

I also worked on Tapestry by Ink Circles.

This is using the called for threads on Autumn by Under the Sea Fabrics on 32ct lugana. this was a true joy to work on but decided to take a break to focus on Brigid's Above.

Finally, I completed the following that was my travel stitching:

I used the called for DMC and a piece of 28ct. evenweave from my stash. It's a Cute Pattern from Lizzie and Kate Called Live Well

The plan for October is to get to the 1/4 point on Brigid'd and move to a Halloween pattern of some sort.

Happy Stitching everyone!

Final Feb Finish

I was able to finally finish Pretty Little Toronto by Satsuma Street this past weekend.

I used the called for DMC and Tarnished Silver Fabric from Under the Sea Fabrics. I love all of the Cities patterns but for some reason this one was harder for me finish. It could be because i was in the middle of it when my surgery happened and the recovery has been a pain, Who knows? I haven't decided what my next project will be but I am thinking about working on a WIP.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Stitch from Stash 2017A - Jan

Here is my Stitch from Stash record for January 2017!

 

 

January 2017

Budget: $10.00

Purchases: minus the Christmas money I used at the retreat $22.34

Credits for Finishes: 

     Football (2.00 size + 1.00 beading) $3.00 + 

     Metamorphosis $17.00 + 

     I Love MN and OH $4.00 = $24.00

Carryover to Feb Budget: 

     $10.00 + $24.00 - $22.34 = $11.64

 

Happy Stitching Everyone!

First Finish - 2017

First finish of 2017 - I Love MN

All of the Floss (Dinky Dyes and WDW), Pattern, and Evenweave came from my stash. The pattern is a Lindy Jane Design's Inc pattern from 1998 and I think I got it at least 10 years ago. I have one for Ohio too that I am stitching up as well. It is interesting that the pattern is stamped with Erica Michaels as well. Not sure the story behind that but I noted it in my journal for records.

I have also started "Happy Stitching" by Sue Hillis Designs - she is the designer attending my retreat next week :) Here is my progress pic thus far.

All in All a good stitching start to the year. I also haven't spent anything in 5 days so that is good as well.

Happy Stitching everyone

2017 - WIPocalypse Check-in

This is the initial 2017 WIPocalypse Check-in. Each month we are to check-in with our progress on certain stitchy projects. I will be updating the Side bar to the left with my projects as I work through them. The prompt for this month is to introduce ourselves, our projects, and any goals we have for ourselves.

My Name is Katie. I am a mechanical engineer by training with a Ph.D. in my field. I continue to work as an engineer by day and craft when I get the chance at night. I am married but have not been blessed with children at this time so that does give me more time to craft :). My dear husband is very good at putting up with my crafting addiction and loves to see what I can create.

As for my Stitchy goals for this year, I would like to be better at check-ins for WIPocalypse 2017. The projects that I want to work on are half new starts and half WIPs.

New starts:
Cirque des Cercles
Cirque Des Carreaux
Toronto of the Pretty little Cities series
Noah's Submarine
USA - Thea Gouverneur

WIPs:
Pinocchio - When you wish upon a star
Santa and Westie Stocking
The ABC's of Family
Snowman Ornaments
Brigid's Shamrock - HAED - 3 pages for the year or more complete

I also have goals of only stitching from my stash except for the 10.00 budget I have given myself.

Let's hope this works out to accomplishing a lot!

Happy Stitching!

7 Hours...

So I learned that if I put my mind to it and chose the right yarn I can knit a hat (my first) in under 7 hours.  I chose the Barley Hat by Tin Can Knits. It was a super simple pattern to follow and I knit it up in the Void colorway in MadTosh DK by Madelintosh using the called for needle sizes.

As you can see below my dad loved the Hat and wore it most of the night.

Happy stitching everyone!

Holiday Gifts part 1

Every year 3 friends and I exchange gifts for the holidays. I am always trying to outdo myself on the homemade side and I made fabric baskets this year.

I filled the fabric baskets with a Christmas Ornament and some dishrags which are always requested.

I loved making these and am actually planning on making a few more for some last minute gifts in the next few days. I also may be making a few for a retreat in the new year as well.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Finally a Finished Pair!

Earlier this year I posted that I finished 1 sock of a pair. One of my goals for 2016 was to learn how to knit socks. Last week I finished the second sock of the pair. Below you can see the two of them together.

First Socks - finished 11/25/2016 - Deborah Norville Sock yarn (I think)

October Roundup and November Goals

I wanted to Drop a line on Progress from my October Goals and layout my goals for November.
At the beginning of the month I planned to:

October 2016 Monthly Goals:

1. No craft stash shopping - SUCCESS
2. Blog once per week - FAIL - I should have known as I went to Las Vegas for Vacation from the 21-26.
3. Finish a dish rag a week - SUCCESS - See Below
4. Complete Pretty Little Italy - SUCCESS
5. Finish Purple Zig Zag Quilt top - FAIL - I decided it was more important to get my cross stitch pumpkin done. (see Below)
6. Start ornaments for the holidays. - SUCCESS - but I forgot Pictures :(

Dish Rags:

I am now up to 8 for the year but I have not even begun to make a dent in my dishrag yarn. I have decided that this will be a goal of my upcoming year. I think I may make it a yardage goal but more to come.

Cross-Eyed Cricket Patterned Pumpkin:

I used the called for DMC and a lighter 28ct which all came from my stash. Evenweave than the model on the chart and the one in my LNS. It was a delightful stitch and went much faster than I thought it would.

I was also able to take 3 quilts to the longarmers and 3 pieces to my LNS to get framed (they were having one of their twice yearly sales).

As for November, here is what I have on tap:

November 2016 Monthly Goals:

1. No Stash or Fabric Shopping
2. Blog once per Week
3. Finish 4 more dishrags
4. Complete 4 ornaments
5. Bind quilts for Niece and Nephew.

Hopefully not too stretching.

Happy Stitching everyone!!!!!

Quilt Weekend Roundup!

So I figured it was a good time to get caught up on the rest of the quilting weekend I had with my Aunt in mid-August. My Mom and I decided it would be best to have the weekend at her house as I was coming back from a work trip and wouldn't have the time to prep my own space for the event. My mom is a clean freak and loves to have the social time even if she isn't a Sewer (yet!). My aunt came down on Friday and we started right after dinner. My aunt is also the one that I completed a quilt 30 Years in the making for last year (Post here). She has accompanied me to fabric stores in the past and for some reason in July she decided she wanted to have sewing as a hobby. I was definitely shocked but love the idea of having someone to share all the craziness. She realized after a few classes on her machine that in person project work was the best way to learn. The goals for the weekend were to learn the steps in the quilting process, including Cutting, piecing, pressing, and basting.

She brought with her, her first project that she started sewing on. She bought a Jellyroll of various batiks and started sewing them together in strips. I then coached her on pressing them. As we were pressing them I realized that the seams were off due to the issue that the 1/4" on her machine was really a 3/8" like I mentioned in my post on the Allegiance Top from a few days ago.  It wasn't a huge issue on this one as the blocked were all squared up to the same size and a white border was added. She and my mom then Pin-basted the whole quilt together. The goal was for her to be able to take it home and stitch in the ditch to quilt.

First Quilt - Aunt B.

We didn't find the Seam issue until we started putting together the Stained Glass Quilt blocks.

Stained Glass -Aunt B

It lead to a lot of Seam ripping (thanks MOM) and a few tears but the blocks are in a Much better place than they would have been otherwise. I also went home and brought over my machine to help increase the sewing output as my Aunt had the goal of getting all of these blocks together before she left on Sunday. I can say that I did donate a few fabrics to this one which makes me happy.

While she was completing these blocks, I whizzed through an UFO to make some Blocks. The strips were first sewn together in January of 2015.

Purple ZigZag - Top #7 (almost)

I left one of the blocks at home so I couldn't sew it all together. This is the next thing on my quilting to-do list.

All in all it was a great weekend and my Aunt is just buzzing along.

Happy Stitching everyone!

Small Finish!

I had a nice small Finish - Happy St. Paddy's Day!

It was stitched on a piece of scrap linen, with some overdyed from my stash. I am having a brain drain on who the designer is...for some reason Erica Michaels is stiching in my head but I will need to check. This one is getting me prepped for the ornament hunt for the year.

Slainte!

My Cross Stitch project for the Monthly Stitch-in at my LNS has been Slainte by A. Fox Original. I used Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Floss in Holly Leaves. It gave it a nice gradual Varigated look.

 The fabric was left over from the butterfly pillow/cushion that I made for my grandmother in in 2014. My hope is to frame this one and put in my entry way. I am also happy to say this was a total Stash stitch.

I just put "99" back on the Q-snaps as I only have the bottom 3rd to finish or 33 bottles to go.

Happy stiching everyone!

I have a reason...I Promise

When I realized that I have been posting once per month vs. the once per week that was my goal I wondered if I had a viable reason for the lack of communication? I figured capturing all of what I realized here with a plan on how to explain it would be a great exercise for me. 

My posting initially dropped off in March, so here is what I realized:

March 6-10th: I was traveling to GA for work
March 23-25: testing at work with no time to craft
March 29-April 1: Testing at work
April 4-7: travel to GA for work
April 14-22: travel to Ireland for Vacation
April 28th: Mother had surgery
May 3-4: GA for Work
May 9-20: GA for Work

In the Past 11 weeks, All but one of them have been busy with Work Commitments. That does not make up for the fact that I did not communicate that but what it dis make realize is that I need to make sure I am taking time for myself during these events.

As a result, I have been making time to craft (and stash build) when I can. I have also been purposefully looking into the local stores where ever I am :)

For Example, in Ireland I found 2 places for Yarn:

I was interested in Irish Wool and Irish Dyers and I found them: O'Maillie's in Galway City and This is Knit in Dublin had a great selection. The picture above shows the finds from This is Knit.

This is Knit in located in the Beautiful Powerscourt Townhouse just off Grafton Street. They carry many Irish Dyers and also have their own line of specially dyes Yarn called Townhouse. They are the Purple skien and the variegated Purple, blue and Green above. I also found a beautiful Yellow Yarn from Hedgehog Fibers and the teal from Dublin Dye. The light Green skien is Irish Wool from a local Irish Dyer. Irish wool is usually rough but this felt good to me.

O'Maille's House of Style was a beautiful store on High Street in Galway City. They are rather famous for having styled the costumes for "The Quiet Man" which was filmed near the store. I was able to purchase some more of the Irish Wool yarn (like the green Skien Above) and some soft Donegal Wool Spinning Co. Yarn. I didn't take a picture of if but it is amazing. My husband found a great hat too. The owner was a veritable encyclopedia on Irish Wool.

I was also able to visit a weaver while in Ireland.

McKernan Handweavers was beautiful. This wall is amazing. The best part what that it had 2 doors that opened to their weaving room. My mom had visited here about 4 years earlier and they had expanded a lot which gives me hope for the knitting arts. I found some great scarves there too :)

So While this doesn't explain the whole time I was not communicating it does cover a 10 days. :) I had to start somewhere.

I will be sharing further updates as I travel to get back in the swing of things.

Happy stitching everyone!

January 2016 WIPocalypse Check-in

I am also a few days late for the WIPocalypse (sponsored by the wonderful Measi) Check-in but I do have a finish to show: ONE NATION is complete!!!!!!!

There is an interesting story to go along with this one. My Dear husband chose this pattern for me when we stopped at a stitching store in Osage, IA on the way to MN for his grandfather's funeral called The Stitchery Nook. It was our anniversary and my husband wanted to make sure that I had a special experience as we both knew the week was going to painful. the pattern choice was easy because with the military history of both of our respective families we tend to gravitate to something patriotic like this. I used the called for DMC and some linen from Picture this Plus. I would have probably chosen a different color than Ecru but It does have a great antique feeling.

I started stitching on this pattern at a stitching day sponsored by my local needlework store Keepsakes in July. They are also the sponsor of the stitching retreat that I took part in over Martin Luther King weekend which is where I finished the pattern.  It was very fitting to have that happen for me. Also, I was one of three women who were working on this pattern at the retreat. In july, there was a women who kept commenting on my working on this and she was one of the others working on it at the retreat. But the cool part is that a few groups are going to start it as a stitchalong which was fun. I can say I was a trendsetter.

Now for the WIPocalypse question of the month!
Topic: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!
 HI! My Name is Katie. I am 35 and live in Cincinnati, OH. I am an engineer where I have my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. I am married with no children as of yet. I refer to myself as crafty and creative as I love to Crosscstitch, knit, Quilt, and Crochet.

I tend to collect somewhere between 5-10 WIPs over each year but my goal is to get more things stitched this year. My projects for this stitchalong are at the left. With One Nation down, I am thinking "99" may be the next one on the frame. I do plan on working what I want and not be kept to specific goals. I do have the cities pattern by Satsuma street that are also calling to me. We shall see.

My yearly goals for all crafts are in the tab at the top!

Happy stitching everyone!

Tie Pillow Part 2

And for the second and final installment of the Tie pillows:

Father-in-Law: My father-in-law chose to have the brown tie's for his pillow. We had facetimed with him and he asked if I could do a light to dark like theme. I decided on Diagonal Stripes and a brown pocket back from my stash.

FIL Front

FIL Back

Mother-in-Law: My MIL was VERY SPECIFIC on the ties she wanted in her pillow and she also wanted a pheasant she had stitched on one of his shirts in her pillow. I am glad it came out as well as it did. She also wanted some of the labels on the ties because her father was color blind and they specified the color to wear the ties with.

MIL front

MIL front w/label

MIL Back w/label

Dear husband: I made my husband's pillow first as a test case. I kept it to the red family. I really love this one.

DH front

DH back

I will have a few more projects I finished on the next few updates I hope.

Happy stitching!

Tie Pillows Part 1

This past summer my Dear Husband's grandfather passed away. He was an executive who wore a lot of ties even when he retired. He was very distinguished. My dear grandmother-in-law asked me if I would make pillows out of his ties for her, my Mother-in-law, father-in-law, Uncle-in-law, Husband, brother-in-law, and cousin-in-law. I was finally able to finish them while I was off between Christmas and New Year's. I am going to be blogging about these in the next 2 posts. (warning this is Picture heavy). All of the backs were made with fabric from my stash and finished pillows were 14".

Grandma's Pillow: I used all of the Silk ties from Grandma's Pillow. All of them had to be interfaced so that i could sew them. I quilted 1/4" from each of the seams on the pillow front.

Grandma's Pillow Back

Grandma's pillow Front

 Uncle-in-law: John's pillow was blue and green. I stuck with 4" in squares and quilted in the ditch. The back was a pocket closure and was a blue Fabric.

UIL Pillow Front

UIL Pillow back

Cousin-in-law: My CIL is in the US Air Force as it his wife. I kept them on a Blue theme on the ties.
Again, I used squares, 5" this time.

CIL back

CIL Front

Brother-in-Law: This one was a fun one. These were the ties that were the most interesting (read: so ugly I couldn't Believe someone owned them). They were also stained in a a lot of places. So I went with a window pane design. I was actually really happy with how this one came out. The sashing was a piece of navy fabric with some bubbles on it that I picked up at a local quilting store remnant area over a year ago.

BIL Back

BIL Front

I will post the last three in my next post.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Fabric Boxes

I was able to finish three fabric boxes for friends for Christmas gifts. I filled them with corresponding Keyfobs (not seen in the pics) and some dishrags per their requests. They like to have homemade dishrags for their use. All of these were made 100% from my stash.

Fabric Boxes

Close-up fabric Box

I am currently stitching on One Nation. I should have a progress pic soon.  I have completed 5 pages of 8.

Happy sttiching!

Another finish ?!?!?!?!?!?!

I was able to Finish a Small Lizzie and Kate Design this week as well:

Lizzie and Kate - Forgive quickly, Kiss Slowly - scrap evenweave and gentle arts floss from my stash in claret.

I love love love this one.

Happy stitching everyone!