The Lord's Prayer from My Big Toe Designs

So, with my stitching going so slowly I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the color changes in my usual projects. The haed BB sal didn't have as many as some of my charts but I was most definitely putting pressure on myself. I decided that after I finished the first row I would start something less challenging, color change wise. Since The Lord's prayer has been on my 'I want to work it' list for at least two years, well now seemed like the time.
Here are a few pictures.

 The second wip picture gives a more accurate view of the colors.
The brown is DMC and the overdyed is Sullivans. I am loving how these look together, though at first I was hesitant and asked for opinions from my stitchy group. So glad to have found the Sullivan's and thought to try it.
By the way, I got this from 123Stitch.com along with Dog Lesson's for people. It was a toss up which I would start, but I decided to go with the fewest color changes!

In other stitching news, two new charts! Yes, I know. But once again an artist is being retired and for the first time in a good while I had fun money, so:

 Run with the Big Dogs, by Sandy Brooks.

And Moya, also by Brooks.

Yes, more black and whites! Both are available from Heaven and Earth Designs through 01/26/2015, but the artist is retiring so if you are interested you may need hurry. Luckily there is a half price sale on, and who could resist that?

Still, I've been amazingly blessed with stash this past year and my plan for 2015 isn't to add to it, but to pass along some of the many kindnesses I've been the recipient of. I've already started and that feels nice for me, and I hope for the people I am giving to. I've been able to forward a few of my old magazines to those looking for a particular chart, and even gift a chart or two. I'm hoping to continue in that vein throughout the year.
I plan to keep on with my turtle pace stitching and will update you when I have something to show.
Just realized I forgot to take a picture of Live, Love, Laugh again.
Next time.

Happy stitching everyone.
Karen

New Year's Bumps and (a very little) Stitching

We are two weeks into the new year and things are a bit up in the air, when are they not? My right shoulder went completely out on New Year's day. I wasn't doing anything special and it has been giving me problems for months, but pooh, just at the beginning of the Heaven and Earth Designs Bulletin Board stitch-a-long. And after having to not make the ornaments and things I'd wanted to do for Christmas gifts, because I was letting the shoulder rest up.
After a doctor's visit, a shot, and a steroid dose pack I have much of the movement back but our hope that it was just inflammation is dashed since the underlying problem is still there, and still extremely painful if I move the 'wrong' way.
My husband had a dental emergency and is still recovering from that. Another thing we'd thought was settled but is having complications.
But...I did get some stitching in! The first page of the SAL arrived late on new year's eve, since the organizer sending it out is in the Australian time zone. I got in the first hundred stitches and was all excited to have the next day off for stitching. Then the shoulder.
So the first 100 stitches:

And the rest of the row, plus a little, stitched left handed:

 And yes, completely frustrating since this is working up so nicely. It took two weeks to finish that row and work one block and a little of the next. I'm more proud of it than I would like to admit, given what went into stitching it. Stitching two hand and then just one, when it is your off hand, is hard work!
I'll update Live, Love, Laugh soon, since I did get some stitches in on it.

And that is it!

I have decided to start My Big Toe's The Lord's Prayer. It is only two colors and that will save me a lot of discomfort in not switching out colors every few stitches. It is a long time favorite of mine and I'm going to start it on the lovely green hand-dyed fabric my secret santa sent me for Christmas, probably within the next week or so. Still waffling over the colors. I can't possibly justify 60 dollars on the recommended silks so I will probably go with DMC. Though I've thought about using the Sullivans, which is really quite lovely to work with. I've done a few ornaments and smalls with it over the past 3 years or so and I really like it.

I've also got some sewing projects in the works. I've always avoided knits and I have the impetus from 2 sources to give them a try. One, with a gift card from work, was buying Gertie sews Vintage Casual. The sizes come up quite higher than expected, being closer to ready to wear sizes than expected. The other motivator is another gift card that I spent on something I've long wanted to do, which was ordering fabric from Fabricmart. I used the gift card to do a test run and I'm very happy with my order. I included some knit fabrics to play with, and I must say they are much nicer than the ones I looked at locally. At least the pieces I received are. I'll let you know how that comes along.

Until next time, Happy Stitching
Karen

Happy, Merry, Jolly Time of Year! A quick update.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Holidays. Christmas and New Year are such fun, exciting, stressful times. I'm hoping you have all had a moment to simply enjoy them.

Stitching, as always, whenever I can.
I took part in the HAED BB sal again this week with Mini Crossing Spirits:

As you can see I changed my mind about working a page at a time and started working across the first row of ten blocks. This was a quick picture I took as I was changing the qsnap, scooting the piece over. I'm probably not going to be working on this for a week or two.
Also, that fake animal print in the background is part of a blanket I made my husband for Christmas. After seeing the one I'd been gifted by my secret santa, he wanted one of his own.
Here is a pic of me all wrapped up in it. And look, I took a pic with my eyes open! Sort of.

Does anyone remember this kit?

 I was having such fun with it back on Halloween of 2013.
While I was posting an update picture here on the blog Dean, who was still a puppy, was busily tearing up the floss card to it. The floss was okay, the card a bunch of little pieces. I'd like to say that he has grown out of this sort of thing, but his paper addiction is still strong.
I shoved it all into a sack to sort out later. Well, it is later. I had a non-stitchy day or two and pulled this out, cleaned up the floss, organized the colors again and made a new card. The light purple is missing but everything else is intact, so I plan to give it some time today and just work on it until the 2015 HAED BB sal starts on Jan. 1. I can't wait to get started on that. Who doesn't love a sal?

What is everyone else working on? Are you preparing for the New Year? New Starts? New Finishes?

Until next time,
Happy stitching everyone.
Karen

Christmas in.....December?

While I can't believe the year is nearly done, it has, as usual, got me thinking about next year. Traditionally for me December is the month I break rotation and work on whatever I like. Since I haven't had a rotation going that is sort of out, but I'm all about the do what I like part.
I've continued on with Mini Crossing Spirits, slowly working my way across the first row of blocks. Still all the same shades of gray so I didn't take an update pic yet.

Yesterday I also made a small start on  my the stocking my husband chose. I know I said in 2015 but it just seemed right so I went with it. I don't have all the floss yet either, but most. unfortunately the pic came out looking gray when it is actually only 2 lines of a pretty blue. Night and the flash I suppose. Instead I'll post a pic of the magazine it came from. 1990!

This one has a couple of charts I'd always meant to start, namely the collector's plates, but those will have to wait awhile. The stocking on the cover is similar to the one I'll be working for Jason.

Now the really fun stuff. I have opened my secret Santa gifts. The sender gave me permission  (I promise I didn't ask!) and after that there was no resisting it.
I was just blown away. Thank you secret Santa, you went way over the top with this. I've never had so much nice stitching stuff!! The little owl needleminder in the pic above was one of my pressies. I have the pictures I took for my Facebook group for now, but may put up some others later on.

Needle threader, needle minder

One side of the blanket

The other side of the blanket and all my lush presents!

Trying to get a better pic of the beautiful needle minder

I confess I've longed for one of the unique needle minder's from HAED but I never thought I would have one. I wish I could take a photo that would show you the depth and richness of that beautiful handmade needle minder.  It is seeing heavy use. If I remember I will show a pic of the ones I was using. The little cheapie red ones that come three in a pack.
BTW, the blanket color in the bottom pics is much more accurate!
The tea had the whole house smelling lovely but I couldn't drink it, I had a sinus allergy attack from it. Bright side is my husband loved it with a capitol L and so he got a bit of a present out of it too!
The hand dyed fabrics are two large pieces of 18 count aida and a piece of 28 ct. Jobelan. These are my first ever hand-dyed fabrics and I love them. They are almost too pretty to stitch on and I will try to get a pic of them up next time.
I've done some test stitching on the 28 ct. and it looks wonderful one over one, with excellent coverage, but I confess I didn't enjoy stitching that count very much. I will be giving it another go later, and also trying it over 2.
I've never felt so spoiled and special as when I opened those packages. I feel so elegant and ladylike at my stand now, stitching away surrounded by all the loveliness.

I hope you are all enjoying a bit of Christmas stitching adventure.
Happy Stitching!
Karen

The Futility Of Resistance....

I won't quibble about it.
Nikki sent me this:

Wolf, girl, black and white, just an all around perfect chart for me.It is titled Mini Crossing Spirits by Nielsen.
I found fabric, I had all of the floss colors but 3.
I felt virtuous for deciding it would be my Christmas new start.
Yeah, I caved and started it yesterday.
My only explanation? I was off work and home alone.

I had a twinge of guilt after announcing I was only having two new starts in the first 6 months of 2015. then I realized it wasn't 2015 yet, I could have a start every day if I liked. Yes, stitchy thinking, totally self involved. lol.
The chart is available here.
Here is my first progress. There are 4 or 5 shades of gray (grey to our UK and Aussi friends) and a bit of black, though it is hard to tell from this photo. Also I started in the upper left, I don't know why, it was an accident, I much prefer the upper right. No matter, I'll just go with it. And btw, this picture is terrible. It looks perfectly fine in real life, I promise!

I've filled in the blank spots since this pic and done a little more but you get the idea.
Before that I worked on both Anal Nathrach and one of the Christmas ornaments.
The ornament, which I put away after deciding to do the back stitch as I go along. I'll pick it back up soon but I hate back stitch.

That isn't all of the cross stitching for this section, I went back and added some more but I'm too lazy to go pull it out for a picture with so little more to show.

Anal Nathrach, yes, I am the world's slowest stitcher.

Still on my first page, which is the center page of the chart. I'm sort of wishing I'd started in one of the corners, mainly because I can't decide which direction I want to stitch in.

Lastly, Mini The Black got fixed up and it only took a short time. I will post an update pic at a later time, because for some reason it won't load for me right now!

Until next time
Happy stitching my friends!

Thanksgiving, Making Plans, and Stitching

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it. I hope you are having/have had a lovely day.
Ours has been quiet but enjoyable. I'm sleepy but I need to stay awake, it is only 7pm! A perfect time to catch up this blog.
I've had a problem with my right shoulder/upper arm for about 6 weeks-2months, it has not affected my stitching at all but then I pulled something in my right upper back shoulder area and wasn't able to stitch for about a week. It is better now but I'm still not stitching as much, just sort of building back up to it.
I also changed my hours at work and I'm loving it by it does take a lot more out of me and impact my stitching time, so I'm still working that out.
But enough prelude.
I manged a bit more on Mini The Black, but found an error on a previously stitched section. It doesn't look to be too bad but I've been procrastinating fixing it for a week or two. I won't post the progress since it was minimal.
Mini Cheshire Cat saw some progress though. I do love working on this one.

It is only another row of 10 down, but I'm pleased to have progress to show.
I had intended to give the lions share of my time to the first page of Anal Nathrach, but it didn't work out that way. I've gone full circle on it and worked my way back to the upper right so that I can work across from right to left, which I find is more comfortable for me.

As you can see I've tried different methods and the left to right is the one I've decided on. I do love the colors in this one.

My secret Santa gift was put in the mail this week. I got the gift from my SS a couple of days ago and it is a whopping big box, can't wait to get in there and see what goodies await me!
I decided to wait until Thanksgiving was over to work on my Christmas ornament kit. I just wanted to do one holiday at a time!
I'm already busily making plans for next year's stitching.
I've joined a SAL that will start in January and my DH has finally picked a stocking pattern, so I'll work on that throughout 2015 and hopefully have that finished by next Christmas.
I've been thinking hard about my 2015 stitching, if you read this blog you already know that I've tried several rotation ideas, with only one of them being really successful. I'm not sure I want to go that route again.
There are a number of kits I have that I want to do, and most are already started, so I'm tentatively planning to give them at least one week a month. I want to work on the sal and start my husbands stocking, those are the only two new starts I'm planning for the first 3 months of next year.
Not only because funds for fabric is limited, but because I want to make a little progress on some of my wips. And frankly, I have too many beautiful charts to choose from and am feeling too indecisive to decide on one.
There is a dark horse in the running, so to speak, for a new start next year. I've been longing to work either a sampler type or a blackwork(I only learned it this year, see my first try here) piece, contingent on finding the right fabric. That will have to wait though, until I can afford something nice to work it on.
It just isn't possible to stitch all of the lovely charts I'd like to stitch, so I'm hoping to be practical and work through some of what I've started before I plunge into anything other than those I've already mentioned.
What about you? Have you begun making plans for 2015? Are you hankering to try something new, have tons of new starts, work towards what you've already got going? I love seeing what others are working on and hearing about their plans. It is very inspiring sometimes to just look at what others are doing and share their excitement.
Until next time, Happy Stitching!
Karen

Progress, Problems and Winter

It seems like a good time to show you my progress.
First is Mini The Black. I am stitching this one between calls late at night when I am working, so I only am stitching the black for now to cut down on confusion. The goal is 100 stitches per work night and I usually make that, though there has been 2 or 3 times when I didn't. It seems to work out though because on a Holiday I worked I got in closer to 300. Anywho, as of 11/01/2014:

A nice bit of progress, now 9.5% worked, so very pleased here.

I also spent some quality time with Mini Cheshire Cat. First with the HAED BB SAL, then continued on with it for a Halloween SAL with my Facebook stitchy friends.

I am falling so in love with this piece again.
It happens every time with a black and white piece.
Oh! I forgot to tell you about the QSnaps! I tried them about a month ago and fell in love. I also love that I can sew huggies/grime guards for them, it just makes it more fun for me.
It was great. I was lucky enough to have just enough money left from another purchase to get these(11X17) at 123Stitch. I loved them instantly but wanted to extend the size for some of my larger projects. My great job sent me a 10 dollar gift the very next day and I applied it to ordering the 3 inch expansions. I want to get an 8" by 8" for smaller things. Just love them.

I got a little holiday happy and decided to begin my Dimensions Christmas Village Ornaments kit. Here is a link to an example of it on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Dimensions-Needlecrafts-Counted-Christmas-Ornaments/dp/B000W5I4OM/ref=sr_1_3?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1415011228&sr=1-3&keywords=dimensions+christmas+cross+stitch
Here is also where the problem came in. The kit is well put together and the floss separated, but the cloth was so tight I could hardly stitch on it! Not too stiff mind you, but the holes too small for the 4 thread half stitches and the 3 thread half stitches. I was in real pain after only 30 minutes of stitching, and had to use a rubber disc to get the needle through the fabric for every stitch.

Dear Lesli took pity on me and sent me a great piece of 18 count to replace it. Thanks Lesli! It was stitching up just lovely when I realized I was one row off and had to frog lots, so no picture today.

The other problem, some creep got our debit information and made 3 withdrawals so we are spending the weekend even more broke than we would have been. Life happens, I just wish it would happen when we weren't already cutting things so close.

The cold weather seems to have arrived with Halloween. I do not like winter. I want to hibernate!

Anal Nathrach is hopefully going to be worked on this week, along with those ornaments, so hopefully there will be progress to be shown next time.

Happy Stitching Everyone
Karen