November Turtle Trot Update!

My Turtle Trot Update this month is rather small. I only worked on one project on my list: Pinocchio's  - When you which upon a star. At last check in I was here:

Pinocchio - When you wish upon a star
MCG textiles Kit from Thomas Kinkade Print
October 15th, 2014

At the time of my picture, this morning I was here:

Pinocchio - When you Wish upon a Star
MCG textiles from Thomas Kinkade
November 11, 2014 

I have moved the q-snaps to the Upper right portion of the pattern. I had hit a few issues with the Floss in the kit in that it was the wrong color and I didn't have enough of it but the customer service at MCG was AMAZING! From the time of first email to replacement floss received was less than 4 days. They were always so polite when I heard from them. This month I am planning on working on Christmas ornaments and hopefully some other WIPs.

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!

October Stitch from My Stash!

Here is my check in for Stitch from my Stash hosted by the wonderful Mel. L of Epic Stitching:
Carryover from September: $30.74
October budget: $25.00
Amount Spent in September: $10.12 - I bought 2 - 16 oz. bags of mill ends cotton yarn for dish rags. They were 5 dollars each.
Carryover to October: $45.62

New Starts: Dimensions Whimsies kit of Bear - traveling pattern


UFOs and WIPs: Seed Stitch Wrap, Hitchhiker Shawlette, Pinocchio, Boys Baby Blanket


Completed: nothing :(

Stash Used: 350 yds for seed stitch wrap, 375 yds. for Boys baby Blanket, some fabric for the next quilt top I am working on.

What I wanted and didn't buy: I traveled to visit my grandmother this past weekend and there is a large craft store with items on discount where she lives. That is where I found the bags of Mill end yarn. I was amazed that they were so cheap. Their skeins of yarn and cross stitch supplies were also heavily discounted. There are also a few specialty stores that I refrained from going to so that I can stay under budget for the rest of the year.

Happy stitching everyone!

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!