Mayyyyynia?

Hi all! I'm back with my monthly update. I think monthly updates are working much better for me now. I tried to get it in around the 15th, but this month has been a bit crazy (aren't they all?)

Anyways, it's May[nia] and I decided to start 2 new projects! Go me! :)

First is Little House Needleworks' Gingerbread(wo)man. If you've been here for... 2 years, you'll know I made this for my husband in 2014 with plans to make one for myself as well. I'm finally getting around to starting mine! Here's my progress:

I think it's coming along nicely. I really only work on it when I don't feel like doing something that requires my Lowery. We're going back to Pittsburgh for a week soon so I'll probably bring that with me.

My first start (gingerbreadman was actually the second one, I just talked about it first) was my first MIRA! YAY!

It's Roses of Provence. I love love love the colors. My only complaint is there's a lot of color changes. I think I might learn to park for this lady... thoughts? Is she worth it? Should I keep up with my cross country stitching of her? I'm torn on it. (don't forget you can click the picture and zoom in) It's on a very light version of Rose Petals from Crafty Kitten (It was an opps I got on her facebook page several years ago).

I did find this cute little thread holder at Walmart:

It only holds her floss right now. Adorable! Do you see the 7 skeins of white for her dress?!?!

I worked a bit on my Plum Pudding:

Funny story (not really) when I took it out to work on it there was a GIANT SPIDER on it. Even though I keep it "safe" in a pillow case when I'm not working on it. SOOOOO I decided I needed a better storage thing for it, so I whipped this guy up:

It's lined in flannel (because that's all I had that was large enough). It fits my 17x17 qsnap which was the point. Hopefully no more spiders on my work. UGH. *shudders*

I barely worked on Passport:

I did added some stitches and backstitching to this freebie:

I think I might have shown this before, but it's my "current" WIPs basket. I have more that I don't consider to be UFOs but aren't "current" WIPs either.

Annnnd last but not least, y'all might remember the stitch along back in 2014 for the Frosted Pumpkin's Halloween Town? Well, I hated part 3 with the bakery so I just lost all interest. I finally recharted the bakery into a house and am making some progress:

I love the color changes (like my teal & purple houses). Do you see the cat I added?!?! I think I'm going to give him some eyes, maybe some whiskers too! I'm still figuring out the house... and there was a witch charted, but I kinda don't want to stitch her either, so it's still a work in progress ... charting as I go along!


OOOOOOOOh and I have an FFO! I know my friend doesn't read my blog so I feel like I can show this even though I haven't given it to her yet (excuse the glare at the framing shop):

I'm so pleased with how it turned out! And it was super reasonably priced. I'm kinda in love with it. I'll totally be taking more projects to this framing shop. I think they did an excellent job.

I bought some stash, butttttt what I bought is for my mom and I'm fairly sure she does read my blog, so I'm not going to spoil it! Goal is a September finish (her birthday is in Sept) but I want to finish one WIP (a decently sized one... like Halloween Town) before I work on that so it could get pushed to Christmas... not totally sure yet. I feel like I need to find some "manly" patterns and make something for my dad... any suggestions!?

How's everyone's May been? Productive I hope!

Read more ...

Spring updates!

Hi all! Today is a gray and rainy day, but yesterday the sun was shining so I managed to take some decent pictures!

I guess I've been busy since my last update (the pictures tell me so) but I don't feel like I've had much stitching time. We've just been so busy! My husband is away for work this week, so last night I made dinner, did my nails, watched Mr Selfridge & stitched. Not all at the same time clearly, but I did get some more progress on Plum Pudding then you'll see below. Not a ton, but I finished another motif.

First up is The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's Pumpkin Passport:

and slightly closer:

It's cute, but I get bored working on it. I did see someone on Facebook omit some of the busy-ness and I liked that a whole lot more, so I might do the same thing.

I can't remember how far I was on the Peacock last time, but I think I filled in a bit more of the flower since last time:

It's a Dimensions Gold kit, so there are tons of blended threads and fractional stitches. It's going to look amazing when it's done.

I also started a freebie by Durene Jones (you can find it here). I was in a spring mood, I was hoping to finish by Easter but that didn't happen.

It's super cute and Durene has so many cute free patterns. She releases new ones every Friday on her facebook. I'm stitching it over 2 on 28 ct fabric that I had in my stash. It's a pale blue.

Last but not least, Glendon Place's Plum Pudding:

My goal for this past weekend was to finish the dark purple petals in the center, which I did manage to do! It's on 28 ct antique white fabric with the called for dinky dye threads.

Now I'm going around in a circle and trying it that way. I think I should start in the middle of a pattern instead of the top left, it's more gratifying to me to see it take shape that way.

I ordered Feburary's Fabric of the Month from Crafty Kitten for my Cherries Jubilee pattern and it came this past week!!

I didn't do a floss toss (I forgot) but one of my favorite things about Crafty Kitten is that she'll do custom sizes. This is a 20 x 20" cashel linen. I think it'll look awesome.

I also received a RAK from a friend in CO (no blog though).

I love cats AND she noted that I could probably finish it in one evening which is perfect for my attention span! Oh how she knows me well. It even came with fabric and the trim!

How's everyone's spring starting? Getting lots of stitching or is it slowing down with the warmer weather?

Read more ...

March Update

First off, Happy St Patrick's Day! I'm not Irish (or maybe I am for just today?) but I do have a table cloth that's got clovers on it, so I totally count that as holiday decor!

I haven't gotten much stitching done recently honestly. We've been busy making friends and going to the gym. Tonight we're headed out to a Meetup.com event for board games. It's being held at a local cider place. Maybe we'll make some friends there.

I finished the R I was working on for a friends wedding. I've just charted their last name for below, I'm not sure how I want to represent the date yet though.. write out the month or just use numbers? Thought?

I started the Dimensions Peacock kit (sorry it's sideways):

I switched out the fabric for a sky crystal linen that was a gift a Christmas or two ago:

I won't have to do all the background now! Which also means I'll have a ton of teal/blue thread left.

I also pulled out my Glendon Place Tiramisu pattern for a few nights:

It prompted me to order some fabric form CraftyKitten for the Cherries Jubilee pattern too (Tiramisu is also on a CraftyKitten piece, Plum Pudding is not) ... I still haven't finished one but I'm already planning on the third one to start. I make a mistake and it ticks me off so I stop stitching on them. Mostly because I have to fix the mistake in these patterns since they are so symmetrical.

Side note, I hate scroll frames. They just don't have enough tension in my opinion, but I did do some digging and trying different things and determined the best way for me to get tension was to do an S type roll, where it's over the top on the top and goes under on the bottom. I found the tension much better that way. Does anyone else have any suggestions for tension?! I have two of these frames that I never use because of the tension...

I also bought a magnifier/light! So here's a picture of my stitchy spot:

You can see my Lowery frame and my new light. It's great, I tried 3 other magnifiers before I bit the bullet and ordered this one. It's not the most attractive thing ever, but it allowed me to work on my Ink Circles Damask Square pattern so much more easily!

I also made those pillows this past month! They even have zippers. They go well with our sofa's blue velvet pillows that we had bought at Tuesday Mornings to go with the carpet we are now using in our living room. New place meant we had to rearrange our carpets to fit different spaces, our blue one is our largest and no longer fits in any of the bedrooms. I'm planning to make two more pillow covers at some point. I still need to buy two more pillows.

I worked on my Damask Square yesterday, it's on 40 ct crystal silkweavers fabric with Peacock Weeks Dye Works floss (1 over 2):

I've decided I love stitching with just one strand of thread, there's no worries about laying the threads right, they don't get tangled! It's so much easier with the magnifier though. I'm still young, but I'd like to be able to still see 40 years from now thanks! I also pulled out a hoop to use last night for this and I remembered why I hate hoops, those marks! It was only in the hoop for like an hour but left a nice ring... I'm going to have to find more random pieces of my q-snaps for this... I bought a 14in one but it's really just way too big. I should have bought another 9x9 instead.

How's everyone elses' stitching been going!? Is everyone ready for Spring? I sure am!

Read more ...

Stitchy Project Bag!

Hi ya'll! Probably didn't expect to see me back so soon. :)  I have a couple things to show you (instead of my usual 0 progress).

First off is some stitchy progress:

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - Pumpkin Passport

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - Pumpkin Passport

I made a few changes to the pattern, nothing too serious though. I changed the girls hair to some Weeks Dye Works cocoa (I think) to match my own a bit better, I'm also a fan of purple so the shirt needed to be updated. I also think I'm going to make the bridge gray instead of the "sand-ish" color that is charted and maybe use con krenik in the Eiffel Tower.

I'm still behind, but that's okay it's not a contest and I have alllll year. :)

Also, I made that navy Q-Snap cover! It was my first one, my mom made the cream-ish ones for me, but I needed a weird size for the Pumpkin Passport project. I think it turned out super well, I'm going to have to make more of them! 

I have a friend getting married the first weekend of June so I'm stitching their initial:

I'll add their last name and date too at the bottom I think. I love how it's turning out. This is the second time I've used this alphabet and I still think I need to make one for myself.... One of these days.

I saw these cute project bags on a Facebook group and they were selling for $45! I like to spend money on stitchy things, but that was a little steep so I decided to try my hand at making one. While it's not perfect, I actually like my version better than the example I was working from (my zipper is hidden, quilted the front in a diamond pattern and added a binding all the way around are just a few of the things that I added).

I'm super excited about how it turned out. You can see that there's a pocket for your scissors (I added interfacing so it would hold up to throwing your scissors in there) along with the pattern and floss. The other side is for my q-snaps. It's currently holding an 6x9 frame. I have a couple changes I'd like to make for my next attempt (including buying a rotary cutter so I can cut in a straight line...). I'm definitely going to make another one and I'm debating making a tutorial as well. I'm by no means an expert but it was really not very difficult, and it only took two evenings (or prob a Saturday afternoon). Would you be interested in a tutorial?

Thoughts? Would you spend $45 for a stitchy project bag or would you rather make it yourself?!

Read more ...

2016 Updates

Hi all! It's been a long time again. I actually moved from PA to NC over Christmas so it's been pretty hectic again. We're getting settled in but we're not fully unpacked. We still need to buy some master bedroom furniture but I'm being picky and want to find something perfect which means all of our clothes are living in laundry baskets basically... Anyways, you're here for some stitching updates!

I managed to finish the Cafe Latte that I was working on for my last post:



I now have three of them done, but only two on this piece of fabric:



I also finished stitching this ornament for a friends daughter, but I haven't finished it into an ornament yet (I'm such a slacker):



I doubt she'll even remember (Olivia is 3) that she got it after Christmas was over.

I've worked on Plum Pudding a bit:





It's coming along slowly. I get super frustrated every time the frog comes around on this one since you have to fix it instead of fudging it. I think I goofed up somewhere so it got put away until it calls my name again. I do want to finish it, I love it so. I'm more of a smalls person though. I don't like things to take too long. ;)

I also finished this Lizzie Kate design:



I started it back in 2015, but I have stitchers' ADD for sure.


I started the Frosted Pumpkin's Passport project:



It's super cute so far. I love the sparkly fabric I chose (32 count raw/gold Belfast). I convinced two of my friends to do it as well. One of them has never cross stitched before, I think we're going to Skype and stitch together. :)

I also have a little bit of stash, my husband got me a gift card to 123stitch:



I didn't want to go crazy so I just got a couple things. I'm itching to start that peacock kit (with a linen instead of the aida).

What's everyone else been up too??

Read more ...