Giveaway!

There is an AMAZING Giveaway at Victorian Motto Sample Shoppe. She dyes her own Floss and Trims and they are simply wonderful. Click on this Link to head over and see her generosity. It amazes me everyday the generosity of the online stitching community.

Happy Stitching!

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!

Stitch From My Stash - September 2014

For this month's Stitch from my Stash, I had a little better control than last month.

Carryover from August: $5.74
September budget: $25.00
Amount Spent in September: $0.00
Carryover to October: 30.74

New Start: Prairie Schooler Americana Patterns, Quilt top for my grandmother
UFOs and WIPs: Seed Stitch Wrap, Hitchhiker Shawlette, Pinocchio, Boys Baby Blanket
Completed: The Lady and the Flag, Quilt Top for my Grandmother

Used: 14 fat quarters for quilt top, 350 yes for seed stitch wrap.

What I wanted and didn't buy: I went to the Southeast Indiana One stop Quilt shop hop because I needed to be inspired again. Needless to say there was a lot there I could have purchased. On the Upside, I started and finished the quilt top after I went there.

All in all, a great and productive month!

Happy stitching everyone!

New Start

I started a new set of stitching patterns from the Prairie Schooler. I forgot to write down the number but the first picture after this weekend can be found below:

Prairie Schooler - Americana patterns
09/16/2014 update

For this week I am concentrating on Pinocchio and some knitting.

Happy stitching everyone!

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!

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!

Feeling Sad

First, I like so many others in this online sitting community are feeling rather blue with the passing of Debbie of Debbie's Cross Stitch Blog. She was very welcoming to me in my start in the Blog world and she will be surely missed. I am keeping her family and friends in my thoughts and prayers. I have decided that I am going to take part in My version of the Crazy Cross Stitch January Challenge. I will start 15 new projects and work on 15 WIPs in the month of January in any NeedleArts field. In other words...I will work on anything from knitting, crocheting, quilting, cross stitching and embroidery. Hopefully Debbie will smile down upon the effort.