Well, I Kinda Could!

I got three out of four done - Duo is stitched, Mary Wigham has a new set of initals, and I started another stocking.
'God's Grace' isn't done, though. My sister (who can and does wrap me around her finger) wanted some crocheted jewelry pieces, so I spent quite a bit of time on those.
My camera batteries are dead, so I'll pick some up tomorrow and show some pics, along with Finish-It February goals.

I Think I Can! (In Five Days)

Wow, January is going by so fast! I've not got anything finished except little things!

So I'd like to wrap up January with this:

1. Stitch a Duo Sprite
2. Finish 'God's Grace'
3. Do something on Mary Wigham, even if it's just initials
4. At least start another stocking, maybe finish one?

I have to work four of those five days, so we'll see how it goes!

IthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcan... but I could be wrong :D

Tree VS Shotgun. Also, Art!

I started stitching a little tree, and soon it looked like it had been blasted with a shotgun:



I felt the need to take a picture of this. I don't know why.

I took the tree to work with me after I took this pic, and was ready to start filling in the other colors, only to find I had forgotten my pattern. So I started the Sprite of Wufei instead

That evening I had to take my Mum to a meeting, so I picked up the little box that has the stocking material in it, made sure I got the pattern, and left. While I was waiting for Mum, I was going to work on the tree. Only... once I got there, I found I had apparently taken the stocking floss out of the box at some point. And since I hadn't got far enough to figure that out at work, I didn't get it when I got the pattern. So I finished Wufei:



Then the next day I made sure I had everything for the tree. Only it turned into a monster with six different backstitch colors and every time I thought the little bugger was done, there was more to stitch. I don't usually mind backstitching but this time... that tree came close to being blasted with a shotgun for real.

But I perservered, and the tree is done now! Two stocking ornaments finished!



I showed my sister the Sprite of Wufei and got yelled at... so next I stitched this:



It's one of the two Sprites I promised her. It's of Knives from Scott Pilgrim. She gets the other after I stitch Duo.

I also discovered that Missy, who designs these patterns, has secret art hidden in them. See, my sis and I discovered this while I paused after just starting Knives:



We call it 'Extremely Sad Man Walking Down Lonely Road'. Ah, art...

I Think I Have Decided

I think I've picked out the projects for my rotation, but they may get changed.

'Cause I do that sort of thing.

Anyhow, I picked two new starts and two WIPs, with one open slot for whatever I want.

1. God's Grace - since it was my first start this year.
2. Rapture - since it's an SAL
3. Frederick the Literate - since it's also in a sort-of SAL here
4. Chang Wufei - since I really want him done this year
5. Open for now but I'm thinking maybe Erestor?

And I'll be taking Sprites & Christmas Stockings to work with me. I finished up Cid today



so I'll be working on my next Christmas Stocking tomorrow. As soon as it's done, I'm starting a Sprite of Wufei.

I worked on 'God's Grace' today, and got this far:



It's not a complicated pattern, so it should be done fairly quickly, despite the large amount of backstitching in it - everything is backstitched. I may leave it off the letters as I kind of like them as they are, but I haven't decided yet.

Post again in a few days! I'm having a blast reading everyone's blogs - these challenges have really added to my 'blogs I follow' in Google Reader. I've got a lot of reading to do now that the craziest bit of the challenge is over!

~Tama

All Over But The Stitching (Pic Heavy!)

The Crazy January Challenge is over... well, except for now I'm supposed to try and finish the 15 projects I started.

...


*crickets chirping*


Yeah, right.

Anyway, here's my Day 14 start -



Little Red Hen by SaySews
This is my first non-cross-stitch start - I used to do lots of crewel and embroidery work but it's been a really long time and I don't remember how to do most of the stitches.


Here's my start - does this split stitch look like feathers to you guys? It's the stitch recommended by the kit but I don't know...

Yesterday I had only a half day at work - yay! - so I went on my tri-annual actual-store stitching stash trip. I live in a very rural area as some of you guys know, so three times a year is about all I make it to a store with actual floss & material. And it's JoAnn's Fabrics even then because I'd have to drive another two or three hours to find a true Needlework Store.

Anyway - I had nothing at all for Day 15's start so I bought:


floss for 'Rapture' - they had all but three colors, guess I'll have to figure out how to get those


fabric for 'Rapture' and another project whose fabric I stole for 'Erestor'


Needles 'cause I lost my needle holder with all my spare needles in it and couldn't find the new packs I had stashed back, either


floss to finish kitting up my 'Nautical' WIP - I lost the other floss. They didn't have the yellow but I had half a skein in stash; I'll have to hope it holds out until I can get more


floss for Sprites

because Reno was bald:


But now he's got hair!:

I did make a mistake and forget to stitch the full crosses for his eye tattoo-mark-thingies, so I cheated and backstitched because I hate to frog. I'll be stitching him again, though, as a gift, so next time I won't forget.

And Irvine was naked:


But now he is clothed:

(these Sprite patterns, as always, are from the fount of pattern-talent Dork Stitch blog)

and some extra things kinda hopped into my cart, I dunno how:


kits (half off and I had two 40% off coupons to make it even sweeter)


and buttons that I like better than the ones I already had for 'God's Grace'


and extra floss of colors that I run out of a lot


and some cake stencils to make my goth sister twitch on her birthday

And after I got home, I wrapped up the first part of the Challenge by starting 'RaptureQS' for the HAED freebie SAL - my final, Day 15 start:





So - now the only problem is figuring out exactly which of all these projects gets put into the first rotation of 2011! Because - I kind of want to work on them all but I'd never finish anything and prolly go insane, too. And there's always that other challenge's 15 WIPs to tackle...

~Insane Person aka Tama

I Progress!

Day #11:

I started 'Bitter Flower'



Here's my huge start:




I'm stitching it on a piece of linen that I tried dyeing a while ago. It came out kind of odd, but I like it for this project.

Day #12, I started my pattern 'Erestor' made with a computer program. This is the exported pattern pic:



And my start:



I'm trying out gridding with him - I've only ever tried it twice before and I liked it then.

Day #13 - Chibi Sheep! This kit has no actual name, just a code:



But the sheep are adorable! And Anime-Chibi-Style. I'm thinking of calling them 'Karate Sheep', actually - they look like they are doing little karate poses. It's hilarious. Here's my start:



In my other challenge, I broke down and took Wufei out to work on him (it wasn't much of a breakdown, trust me) and I'm working my way down his arm to the bottom of the pattern. Once I reach the bottom, I'm taking a break from all the big chunks of color and rewarding myself by stitching his other eye.



I'm also working on Sprites and another Christmas Stocking - not far enough along for pics yet; I'll prolly wait until those are done.

Only two days of the Crazy January Challenge left! Two new starts! This has been lots of FUN!!!



~Tama

Missing Days

Three days of starts - although they are small starts!

I did lose power; luckily not for too long as it was very, very cold!

We got a fair amount of snow but not a huge amount. Unfortunately, bad roads and no power do not excuse me from going to work - I'm supposed to be part time, but due to a supervisor being on medical leave, I'm currently working full-time. Only without full-time benefits. Bleh. And at half the pay of the 'real' full-time people. But at least it is pay - my electric bill for this month is ridiculous.

Good thing all these lovelies are from stash, then, yes? I'm much more fond of evenweave and linen now, but at the time I kitted most of these, I was only used to Aida. So that's what they are. No new fabric for me for a while... wah!

Day #8 - Lo, How a Rose

This is what it will look like:



And what I got done so far, stitched on 'Heartstone' colored fabric:



Day #9 - Prairie Schooler '1984 Santa'



one needleful of floss:



Day #10 - 'Mom' by Bent Creek. I stitched 'Dad' a few years ago. Sorry for the lousy pic; there's low light in here so I went online looking for one. Didn't do much better.



Again, one needle of floss:



These new starts are fun, but I'm not getting a lot done on them. I guess that's not the point, though. And these three I'm pretty sure I can get done this year :D

On the Flippin' Crazy Challenge side, I have finished another book on Frederick the Literate, the tall skinny book next to the owl. Not a big book, but one more toward the end! Someday, backstitching will turn the weird black Morse-code-like squiggles into the title 'Sardines'.



Well, I'm off to dig out another WIP! I can't decide though if I'll work on The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat or if I'll pull out the next WIP my Mum chose from my hat o'names - it's Chang Wufei and I wantwantwant to work on him, but last time I did I ended up getting all wrapped up in making patterns from pictures and it wasn't a good thing. I spent a lot of money on printer ink and floss...

Later, luvs!

~Tama

Uh-Oh

Not supposed to be posting at work, but I just looked out the window and big fat snowflakes that look like they are falling up... anyone who gets snowy weather knows what that means... possible blizzard!
YIKES!
so if you don't hear from me for a few days, the power went off. (it usually does in blizzards)

~tama

Oops!

I was having so much fun with ornaments yesterday that I completely forgot to post my day-6 start.

I worked on this handsome fellow:



He's the Brave that matches the Maiden in my sidebar; she is also one of my challenge pieces this year, in the WIP challenge. Both have been languishing in my stash for a very long time. Sorry I don't have a better pic; the kit is out of print and has been for years. I only have the pattern, which I got from a lovely lady who had already stitched her kit but still had the pattern left. She didn't have any floss or the color pic, though. Luckily, Janlynn prints the DMC color codes. I got the pic online.

I'm not going to show a stitching start, I didn't get that much done.

I didn't get much done on today's, either - not because of ornaments (although my Irvine Sprite has all the black stitched) but because I had to go grocery shopping. This is what I started, though:



It has also been waiting patiently in my stash for years. I split my new starts between recently bought patterns and old ones I always meant to get around to. This one is huge and I really don't expect to get it done this year but I don't care. Anyone who has ever looked at my WIP pile will tell you that! HA!

I'm off to get some more progress done on Fred's book!

~Tama

Warning: Finishes Make Me Silly

Today, I have my very first finish of 2011!

Behold - Sephiroth!



...y'know, the Sprite :D

After I finished him, I realized he looked very, very lonely.

But not to fear! For I have a second finish!



Wee Snowman! Snowman can keep Sephiroth company!

But wait - I forgot! Sephiroth is EEEEBIL!

Run, little Snowman! Run!!!

...oh, wait. No legs.

But wait! (again) I have another finish today!



A Stocking! The day is saved! The snowman is saved! The...

...er, is a stocking going to help my Snowman at all?

Hmm... a question to boggle the intellect:

Can a Snowman Defeat Sephiroth With a Sock?

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna be up all night now...


.

Stockings & Stash!

Hullo, all!

Here is my start for today - my Mum drew my Christmas Stockings kit!



There are 30 of them - I'd like to say I want all of them done by December, but I'll settle for half. Half would be excellent.

Here's the first one I'm working on - once again I got home late, and tired, and blah - I wanted to finish the white squares but I made a mistake on the toe and I'm going to have to pull three squares out. Making a mistake on a pattern this simple is a pretty sure sign I need to go to bed, you think? I'm taking this to work with me tomorrow, so tomorrow evening I may have my first finish of 2011! Cross your fingers for me?



This stocking was the first one I saw when I opened the pattern pages, so it got chosen to be stitched. It's the second from the left in the bottom row.

I didn't get out a new WIP today, either. I decided to work on Frederick a little more. Another book is coming along nicely and I'm also slowly adding to the bottom bookshelf line. I'll have a pic soon!

I got stash! HAED was having their annual 30% off sale, so although I don't need more HAED's, I decided to get these two while they were cheap :D



Selena Fenech's 'Treasures'



and Christensen's 'Ten Lepers'. I adore that last Leper (never thought I'd type that!) and I couldn't resist him. He has such a gorgeously perfect look on his face - it matches the story beautifully. I was surprised by how few pages this pattern has - I hope the detail shows up.

And this is for Lyssa - who loves dolphins (me too!) - 'Dolphin Play' has a big-brother kit; this is 'Dolphin's Domain'. It's pretty much the same pic, with more detail and much bigger! Both kits are no longer made, I think - I got both of mine on eBay for ridiculously low prices. I haven't started this one yet but I think I will next year. Too many WIPs for this year!


Hope you are all having a lovely New Year!

~Tama

PS - I forgot to link to the TUSAL blog/exclamation yesterday. Go here. You can still sign up.

Day Four & the TUSAL

Wow - I'm barely making it!

Here's my first TUSAL pic -



Not much in that jar just yet.

I've always saved my orts, so the jar is nothing new. Here are two of my older jars, sitting prettily on a shelf. They're very sparkly in real life.



The TUSAL should be fun if I can keep up with it - and it will add to my jar collection, right? I do need to scrub the sticker residue off!

Today's start was 'Amish Quilted WallHanging' from a Cross Stitcher magazine. I don't remember the date. I won't be making it into a wallhanging - maybe a pillow, though. I love the colors, they're actually very bright.



I still have a cold, so after work I slept and then had dinner at my parents. This made stitching time non-existant and I only got two lengths of floss into the project. But here it is, such as it is!



I'll work on a WIP for the 'Up for a Challenge' tomorrow - I didn't have time today.

Later, dears!

~Tama