1st Page Finish!

Yes, it is obscenely late (or should I say early?), but hey, it's the weekend, and I finally finished the first page of my first HAED! : )    This is the start of  "Quiet Time" by Sara Butcher:

In order to avoid lines in the finished product, I continued some colors onto the adjacent pages, so I have a small amount of pages 2 and 6 already completed.
Just gridded several other pages, and am excited to work on page 2! ( :  Now to bed!

WIPocalypse Check-In: August

Hi all,

Lots of fun progress to report!  I've been on a crazy stitching kick, especially the last couple days now that my new patterns have arrived.  I'm very ready for some new starts! : )  I am forcing myself to wait until I finish the gifts I am currently making....so difficult, but it's helping me find the motivation to work on my current WIPs. : )

The topic for this month is: Tell us about your oldest and newest WIPs.

My oldest WIP is "Aurora Cabin", which I started back in May 2009, then left it as a UFO for 4 years while I completed my undergraduate degree.  I picked it back up in October 2013, and am hoping to see a finish on it by May.  It is one of the patterns I am tackling as a part of WIPocalypse, and this month it went from here:

To here:

The sky is going so quickly after all of the confetti of the trees and mountains!

My newest WIP is "Napping Kitten" which I started in June (will be a Christmas present for my sister.)  It went from here:

To here:

I am also working on "Checking His List Stocking", which went from here:

To here:

And, last but not least, I am working on my first HAED, "Quiet Time."  I did not have a page finish, but it is about there, so hopefully I will be able to share one with you in the next couple of days!

I am thrilled because today I have absolutely nothing to do besides a little housework (when does that ever happen?) so for the rest of the day I plan on stitching, stitching, and stitching some more!

New Stitchy Stash! :)

Exciting stuff! :)  Now that I am stitching more than in previous years, I have been keeping an eye out for new patterns I might like to stitch after I finish my current WIPs.  I was lucky enough to receive some unexpected award money through the university for my thesis work, and while most of it will be going to pay for necessities and books, I decided to also treat myself to a "small" stitching shopping spree.  Thanks to some awesome lightly-used finds, I was able to get a surprising amount for my budget, which made me very very very happy!  This is what I ended up with:

Two books of designs by Joan Elliott: Bewitching Cross Stitch and Christmas Cross Stitch Treasures, and the Summer 2014 issue of Stoney Creek magazine (annual Christmas issue!  Can you tell I have Christmas on my mind?  It must be all the stitched presents I'm tackling this year.)  And because I like multiple patterns in each of these collections, I shouldn't need to buy any new patterns for at least the next three years haha!  (We'll see how that works out!)

Stoney Creek also has a cute Halloween pattern available for free (!!) called "A Frightful Welcome," so I ordered that along with the magazine (and decided to go ahead and purchase the fabric and glow-in-the-dark Kreinik for it as well!):

I think this might be my next new start after I finish stitching up presents for this Christmas.

Hope everyone is having a good end to the summer! It's hard to believe that school starts back in two weeks!

WIPocalypse Check-In: July

Hi all,

Thanks so much for the encouraging comments on my previous post!  Please forgive my tardiness in replying: life was a bit hectic for awhile, but by next week it should slow back down.

The WIPocalypse question of the month is: It’s halfway to Christmas.  Do you start your holiday stitching this early?  If so, what do you hope to accomplish this year?

I do start my holiday stitching this early, in fact, I probably am stitching on something Christmas-related all year long.  This is partly because I love Christmas/winter designs, but also because during the school year I don't have a lot of free time, so I get my projects started early in order to ensure finishes by Christmas. This year I have several gifts I am making family members for Christmas, and I have 2 of them partially complete: one a stocking, and one a picture that is not a Christmas design, but will be a Christmas gift! (My progress is below...luckily no one else in my family blogs, so I don't have to worry about them peeking!) Besides these, I am planning on making a set of 4 ornaments for my parents, which I will start once one of my current gift projects is complete.

My Stitching Progress:

"Aurora Cabin" went from here:

 

To here:

I completed most of the forest hills (mountains?) to the left, which despite all of the confetti went fairly quickly because they were half stitch instead of full!

 

"Checking His List Stocking" went from here:

 

To here:

 

 Santa's bag is full, and he has a (partial) sash!

 

And "Napping Kitten" went from here:

 

To here:

 

 

 He has a face! : )  I'm very excited about how quickly this one is coming together.

 

I did not have a page finish for "Quiet Time," because I spent most of my stitching time with my other projects, although I did make some progress on it! I will post an update once I have a page complete.   Thanks for looking! :)

WIPocalypse Check-In: June

 

Hi all,

Full moon, Friday the 13th? Pretty spooky. ( :  According to an article on theweathernetwork.com, there won't be another full moon on a Friday the 13th until the year 2049! 

Superstition aside, the WIPocalypse question for the month is:  Have you ever been to a stitch gathering such as a retreat or a festival?
I haven't, but that is certainly an item on my bucket list!  Maybe next year. ( :

Now to my stitching progress: this is about two weeks of progress since I joined the SAL on May 28, and I have actually accomplished a lot for me in this amount of time, since I am a slow stitcher (and easily distracted!)

My first HAED "Quiet Time" by Sara Butcher went from here:

To here:

I am determined to get the first page of this done by my next WIPocalypse post!

"Aurora Cabin" went from here:

 

 To here:

I stitched in the black, white, and light green in what-will-become the tree to the far right, and the white on the tree at the left edge.


I made the most progress on "Checking His List Stocking", which I am spending the most time with because I have never finished a stocking before and since I don't have a sewing machine and will therefore likely be finishing it by hand, I want to leave myself plenty of time to figure it out before Christmas!

The stocking went from here:

To here:

 

 

There are bunnies! ( :  I am hoping to finish them tonight.

 

And I had a new start!  Although I haven't done much of it yet, I began "Napping Kitten" by Dimensions, which I am planning on completing as a Christmas present for my sister:

It will look like this when it is finished:

So, I made some progress on my goals for the year, although I'm not near any finishes yet! Hoping to be even closer to some by next month!

Welcome and WIPocalypse

Hi all,

Welcome to my blog!
I have been cross stitching for several years (9? I think?) off-and-on, and now that I am in graduate school (and on summer break!) have finally devoted some real, consistent time to stitching.
I have stitched several small/medium items for gifts in past years, and am currently working on the two largest projects I have tackled (and the first I have worked on for myself!), "Quiet Time" (HAED - Butcher), and "Aurora Cabin" (Dimensions). I am also working on "Checking His List Stocking" (Dimensions) as a gift for my BF (sshhh! ( : )

In addition to cross stitching, I enjoy reading, writing, playing the piano and playing with the queen of my apartment, my cat Little One.

I'm new to the blogosphere, so please forgive my fumbling as my technologically-challenged self figures this out!



Through the HAED forum, I came across a link to the WIPocalypse SAL, hosted by Measi:

I realize I am a bit late to the game here, but I figure this type of challenge will help me complete my yearly stitching goals as well as keep me from procrastinating over blog entries.

Here is my list of 2014 goals:

Current WIPs:
"Aurora Cabin" (Dimensions) - finish
"Checking His List Stocking" (Dimensions) - finish
"Quiet Time" (HAED) - finish 4 out of 25 pages

New Starts:

Nativity Ornaments (4 - Kooler Design Studio) - finish
"Napping Kitten" (Dimensions) - finish
"The Wave" (Dimensions) -start (any amount!)

This might be a little too ambitious, because once August comes around I will be quite busy with school again, but here's hoping I can get the bulk of this done! Looking forward to getting to know all of you fellow stitchers!