New Start(s) and a Little Finish

After last weeks sorting of the books I started a little God Bless from one of them and finished it this morning. Here is a pic. I really enjoyed this quick little stitch. I've no idea what I will make it up into yet but something will come to me.

And in keeping with the sorting, and continuing on, I began on the cross stitch magazines. Not the knitting, crochet, or God help us, the quilting ones. Here is a quick snap I took of some of them. Not all by any means.

These range from the early 80's until 2009. Can't believe it has been that long since I bought a cross stitch magazine, but there you are.

In organizing some other things I came across these two needlepoint kits. I knew they were there but I'd sort of forgotten so I pulled them.

The cushion is wool and the hanging is floss and ribbon and such. I've begun the wool piece, let the DH choose which to start first. It is called Orchid Collage by Dimensions and is probably discontinued given how long ago I bought it.

The hanging, or picture if you prefer, is Cherry Blossom Beauty, The Gold Collection, Dimensions. It is even older (12 to 15 years) and I will have to work it very soon as the painting on the 18 ct. canvas appears to be fading fast.

There are no other kits, my stash is woefully small. There is one kit, that DH bought and never worked, cross stitch, with wolves. It is on black aida. Maybe I will pull that out one of these days. I had to frog a bit of it for him and he just sort of gave it up as he was just a beginner at the time.

And of course there is Frederick, that I got for my anniversary present last year to be worked on. I do enjoy a nice kit from time to time.

Still putting in stitches on the Mystic Garden here and there as I am doing the BB SAL on the HAED BB this week. I also need to work on my kitchen piece that I showed you before, but may wait for the HAEDless SAL for that. Or not. It has been a long time since I found myself enjoying these simpler pieces and I want to go with that.

Happy stitching this week my friends.

Forgetful, as well as being a slow stitcher!

In my last post I completely forgot to show you what I got from the HAED rewards program for finishing QS Dragon Soul. I requested QS Dragon Angel, by Sinz:
Here is a picture:

Love the dragon and the purple and violet really appeal to me. Of course I've no idea when I will start this one. There is a certain butterfly calling my name at the moment, and getting louder.
I just followed the directions on the HAED site and the chart was e-mailed to me super fast. What a great program!

My QS Mystic Garden is coming along slowly, not so much from the confetti, but from the method I'm using to keep up with the chart. It really slows me down. The pattern is a pleasure to stitch if you don't might a bit of confetti. Here is an updated pic as of yesterday morning.

I was a little bored last night while I was trying to be quiet while DH took a nap, so I pulled out a scrap piece of fabric and began a God Bless Our Home. Yes, I already have a pretty flowery one I did year ago, but this one is super plain and simple. It comes from the book Season's Remembered, an old Leisure Arts cross stitch book that I don't think I've ever worked out of. Remember I did some book sorting and now I naturally have to look through the stitchy ones to refresh my memory of what is in them. There are several pieces I meant to work and never got around to, so don't be surprised if you see some of the smaller ones popping up on here on my spare pieces of fabric. I'm quite in the mood for pieces I can finish in under a year or two right now. I am also still thinking of ornaments for some reason, so who knows what I will take it into my head to do now that things are all tidy and easy to find?

Here is a pic of my little start.

Until next time, Happy Stitching Dear Friends. 

10 DAYS of 2013

I must say I don't feel I have a lot to show for the first ten days of 2013. Being home, and not having a working car I just feel as if I should have accomplished more somehow. Actually I know I've done quite a lot of things. Books have been rotated and mostly sorted, I just don't have enough room for all of them. Movies and Music put neatly away. Oh, and I learned to make homemade tortillas, something I've been meaning to do for months, and they are wonderful!

 I re-organized my stitching supplies and that has slowed my stitching quite a lot. Also, no printer so I had to figure out how to read and mark the 2013 HAED SAL(I'm doing Mystic Garden) on the little tablet, and that took quite a lot of time. Doing it that way is really slow. Here is my progress on that:

I've also done a bit on Needle Maiden and I think on Mini Soul Mates:

And my little kitchen piece saw a few stitches:

I've done a bit of sewing, or revamping, on my clothes. I'm trying to cut things down as most of what is left of them are too big. So I forgot to take pics of all of that, though there is one of a half slip I decided to make as I need one for the skirts I am altering. Here is a quick snap I took when I had set it aside to do something else.

I still have a hem to put into one skirt and some repairs on the side slit on another to take care of. Plus my old, favorite corduroy jumper which is just huge on me, and I'm hoping to figure out how to take that in enough to be wearable.

Obviously all of this takes place around looking for a new job. It completely freaks me out to not be employed. I think I was prepared for a number of things, but not this.

Anyway, I know everyone is full of new starts and SAL's and I've been enjoying looking at all the new work and the New Year blog posts. I can't wait to see more of them. Also thinking of trying a few new things. I've never made a circle skirt or a one seam skirt and I think there is probably enough in my stash for me to do so. No floss or fabric or anything has been bought since the lay-off thing so everything must either be from my small stash or must wait.

What are y'all looking forward to this year? Planning to try anything new or go back to something you've done in the past? I know many of your SAL's have started, do you have more than one? Two? Any new charts or patterns you just can't resist? Let me know what you are dreaming about doing  this year.

That is about all for today.

Hope you have Happy Stitching Everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to all my stitchy friends.

I suppose I should do a wrap up of 2012 like so many others do but I'd rather look forward to 2013!
But a quick recap won't hurt. I did a have a few really great things in 2012. I made a good friend through stitching and this blog. I accomplished a satisfying amount of stitching. I was RAK'd a number of charts that I love and didn't think I'd have any time soon, if ever. I even bought 2 charts. So many charts came my way this year in fact, that I now have a stash of charts that I long to stitch. I also started a number of them so I have too many WIP's.
For Christmas Teresa and Molly (Happy Birthday Teresa!) sent me 2 charts to cheer me up. They didn't arrive for Christmas due to a glitch but shortly afterward they were in my E-mail. And cheer me up they did.
Here they are.
Too Hot:

And QS Blue Butterfly:

There were losses this year. We lost my father-in-law this year and I just worked my last day on Thursday due to cutbacks, there were a lot personal and financial problems (car still not repaired) and things look just as bad, and really worse, this year, but somehow I feel hopeful.

2013 begins with my DH's Birthday tomorrow. Then there is the 2013 HAED SAL on the 4th.
There will be lots of job hunting, and who knows what I will find? Something wonderful I hope.
I have all of those WIP's to keep me busy, certainly enough for a few years. I am looking forward to all of that stuff and more. Maybe some sewing, and possibly losing a few more pounds. I've lost 3 in the past 2 weeks, unplanned but welcome. Pulling down wallpaper in the living room. All sorts of silly things like that.
I reorganized all of my stitchy stuff, so no stitching this weekend until today hopefully. I think I may have messed up with the organizing since I think it will slow me down till I get used to everything. Live and learn. lol.

So what are you looking forward to this year? Got anything you want to do? I'm not making resolutions, but I have some ideas of things I'd like to change.

Happy New Year and Happy Stitching everyone. Peace and Love.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas. Joy and blessings and love is wished for you all.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Stitching Year

Or not. But still an exciting time.
There is so much going on, and again, at the same time not.
Aside from major implosions in my private life I have 3 days more of work next week and I am officially cut back (out actually). Bad enough, but now my car has broken down and I can't have it repaired so even getting to and from work will be a huge struggle. As is getting to the store, or anywhere else. Try buying Christmas dinner by only going to places you can walk to and carry the groceries home without getting a hernia. Luckily for me there is one small store near by and we will make do.  They carry bathroom paper and that my friends, is a very big deal.

But what, do tell, does any of this have to do with stitching? Well, everything really. I can't settle down to stitch. When I do, I can't settle into a project, a few stitches then it is out of there. I'd make a new start on my black and white but I just can't get excited about it and I'm unsure about the fabric. I may want to use that piece for the 2013 HAED SAL, so there you go. Can you stitch when your life is in turmoil? It usually calms me and I am slowly getting a grip but there is a lot of frogging.

I started this.

 

Pretty small start. It is one of four I want to stitch for my kitchen. They all measure about 80 by 130. I got the patterns from here. I love this site and highly recommend you take a look around. There are a lot more patterns than just alphabets.

I started it for the HAEDless SAL this week and have gotten more than this done but haven't taken a pic, I will wait until I am done with this week's SAL and post one. But...It looks like a nice simple chart, but hasn't been for me. I have gotten quite a bit more done, and have frogged it, some parts of it 2 times, because of simple counting errors. Once I just fudged it I was so sick of frogging and re-counting. Sigh.

What in the world? I have no idea why. I will be very happy when my stitching mojo comes back from being AWOL though.

I have to say, I do love small and normal sized projects just as much as the BAP's. There are still some wonderful kits on my I want list too. And then there are some charts coming to Tilton Crafts that I am feeling pretty excited about, especially the ones that get my inner goth girl all stirred up!

So, not your typical Christmas season post today. I do wish you all a Merry Christmas though. Mine could be much worse so I'm going to try not to whine, and try to just enjoy being home. I love being home as a rule and once I can stop spazzing I'm sure I'll be thrilled to have so much home time. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to print that first page of the 2013 HAED SAL with neither black printer cartridge nor car. I'll let you know how that works out.

The most stitching fun I've been having is living vicariously through other people's projects. There are some stunning ones out there in SAL's and on other people's blogs. I have updated my stitching links. I'm still adding some of my favorites a little at a time and I have deleted any blogs that have had no posts in the past 6 months. There are some wonderfully inspiring stitchers out there.

Happy Holiday Stitching my stitchy friends. I hope you have a joyous time.

Early Morning Stitching Daydreams

I've been thinking quite a lot about just how many projects I have started this year, about how many yummy delicious charts I've been blessed with that I somehow managed not to start, about rotations, about SAL's, about what other charts I'd really like to have. There was a run-on sentence for you!

I made a finishes page and there isn't that much on there, which is OK, it is just for fun. Still, it did set me to thinking. I feel like I want to be really committed to the HAED SAL this coming year. Not to win new patterns so much as because I didn't take part last year and I didn't finish the ones from previous years. So I'm pretty sure I'll commit to finishing at least one page of it, but more likely two this year. I would love to say I'll do all four pages but I have no idea what the year will be like as everything is so unsettled and up in the air right now.

I do want to make a few things for my kitchen. I'm day dreaming about when we get to start re-doing it in the misty future somewhere and I'm thinking traditional blue and white. In furtherance of that I've chosen some charts I found here. I love this site, which I found by accident when I was home with my back out on Wed. Yes it went back out but is improving. Mostly alphabets there, which I love, but I will actually stitch some of the other pieces as a set for the kitchen walls. Free is good right now, and I love the idea of stitching older charts that have been well loved over the years.

Then there are some other charts I'm interested in, but they are daydream charts for now. There is this one from Tilton Crafts which has been one of my favs for a few weeks now. It was love at first sight and hasn't waned at all. Steam Punk Puppy! Actual name of the chart is Amris.

Another old fav is this one from Scarlet Quince.

I've been loving this black and white for a couple of years now.

There are two from Golden Kite, also been getting love from me for a few years.
Suspense.

 And Sympathy.

You've seen my other day dream charts on past posts so I won't bore you.

Have you noticed that I altered the pixxels of the photo's a few posts back? I read that I should do that to save memory storage usage on Blogger and it seems to be alright.

I have no idea what I'll be stitching the rest of the month. I may go back to my rotation, I do love the idea of a rotation, but in reality I usually do whatever in December and just flow with it, so I'll have to wait and see. I haven't started a new black and white yet. I need to sort fabric and I'm trying not to spend anything extra. It will be Cheshire Cat, it received the most votes, and it is smaller and so more affordable. The Black will happen though, it must.

Does your  stitching change at the Holidays? Have you  decided what you'll be stitching next year? I'm still working on that myself. What chart(s) have you thought about stitching for years but haven't gotten round to buying yet, or have bought and not stitched?

Happy Stitching my Stitchy Friends!