Finishing Up February

Last post of the month - boy, did February go by fast around here!

I've caught a flu or virus or something, so I've been too sick to go in to work for the last few days.  In between naps, I managed to do this:


The last two books of Frederick the Literate!

And here's the whole thing, waiting for the next step - stitching in the metallic bits on the books.



I've also filled in a bit more on Nostlagy (the pic is a bit fuzzy, sorry!)



And I started my Mum's next afghan, even though Mosiac Stair-step isn't done yet.


Whew.  Maybe I should get sick more often?  ...nah.  It's still no fun.

Here's another HAED to show - this one is 'Sea Beacon' by Jasmine Becket Griffith.


She's not my usual style, despite all the Hannah Lynn's I've acquired lately, but I like this one.  A lot.  I can't really explain why - but between the blues and the eeriness and the tiny ship silhouette, she's just perfect for me.

And one of my siblings felt a bit sorry for me being sick, and bought me a design from WitchyKitt, which is the site that has replaced Witch Stitch and Bits (although they don't have all the patterns).

This is 'Gothic Red'.  Very pretty!

More on Nostlagy

I'm not where I want to be to say 'Oh, my goal is done!' because I wanted more leaf-work.  I wanted them to look finished.  However, I've had to just start filling in the bigger blocks of background color, so that it would be easier to tell where the leaf-edges are.

I did wander into territory I wasn't going to go to yet - I did one color of one band of the mosaic.

Also, I finished all the 3371 in her hair, and the garnet (902) highlights.  So I will be filling in the black next, and I wanted to take a picture before I started that.  When there is more than one large area of color - unusual in a HAED, I know - then I like to alternate needles-full of floss to prevent boredom and random changing of projects.

So, since you now know all that supremely, extremely, vastly important information, here's an update pic.



That's from earlier today.  I've started the black and more shades of blue on the background.  There will be one more pic before the end of February.

And here's another HAED - what's a layaway without knocking one of those Hannah Lynn's off the list?  This one is QS Nina.  Those are some hairy coconuts! (and that's a sentence I never thought I'd type!)



I was surprised there was only one skein of 310 listed for her - so I had to check the pattern, and found that all of her outline is done in 898.  That'll be interesting.

A Santa Stocking

Number 23 of 30!



This one was a little messed up in the pattern - all the backstitch lines except for the fox were the same color, while the picture showed them different.  So I had to think.  Painful, lol!

Another HAED:


'Avarice' by Marta Dahlig
This is the sixth of her 7 Deadly Sins that I've bought.  If nothing else, whoever I leave my stash to when I die (hopefully at age 138 or older) will be extremely happy!

An Afghan Update

I have put five more repeats on this:


And I have finished all the basic parts of twenty granny squares.


Now they are waiting patiently while I dither over exactly how I want to do their edging.  Then after getting that (it's one row, you wouldn't think it would be this difficult to decide) they get a quick blocking and be sewn together.  Then I have to edge the whole thing.  That edging, at least, I know exactly how I want to do.

And here's one more HAED!  I will be ending posts with these for a looong time - I bought way too many during that 50% sale!



Sessler's 'No Words Needed'.  This couple is apparently one of her favorite subjects, but that's okay.  They're beautiful.

Patty Makes Three

Random post!  And unfortunately, that post title does not mean I have a new kitten.

I'd love one, Grizabella would (eventually) love one, but Audio would never forgive me.  Grumpy old man-cat.

Once upon a time, before I moved to where I live now, I had quite the collection of houseplants.  Forty-seven, if I remember correctly.  All kitty-safe.

Then I moved, and the propane was supposed to be gone, because even a whiff gives me a migraine.  Instead, I moved my plants carefully, and some of my furniture, and came back after the weekend to find the house stinking of propane and most of my plants dead.  I know I'm lucky the place didn't blow up, but I still was upset about my plants.  Only eight of them lived.  I didn't have the time and money to invest in replacing them, so I just babied the eight to the point that I jokingly gave them names to annoy my siblings.

Last year, during the blizzard, I lost six of those eight.  Our generator wasn't working and that was that.

The two I had left were Penny and Polly, respectively.  One Aloe plant and one Christmas cactus.  And I only managed to save part of them.  They seemed to go dormant for awhile, but recently they've been getting bigger and bigger and now they pretty much need new pots.

Here they are, cavorting with my owl collection:


Penny is the Aloe, and Polly is the cactus. (She likes to grow down instead of up.)  It was just coincidence that left the two live plants with P names and double letters.  I decided to just keep the two and not worry about houseplants for now.

Yesterday, my Mum, who is not much of a plant lover, had a friend hand her a very, very sad little plant.

She promptly handed it to me.  Here it is as it looked yesterday:


I don't even know what those brown things are supposed to be.  They are paper-mache or something.  They are plant-pokes, and there were five.  All stuck in the dirt of a very, very pot-bound plant.

Here's the new plant today - named Patty so she would match, haha! - in her temporary pot.  It was all I had available until I can get some new ones.  I'll be leaving her in it for a while now, though, so she doesn't get shocked by too many moves.  It's sitting on her old pot until I can get a pie pan or something to put under it.  Doesn't she look a lot happier, though?  In just a day!


It's going to take a little while to coax her into a pretty shape - vines can be a lot of fun when you train them to grow where you want.

I don't really plan to add any more right now - does anyone happen to know what the plant-name of Patty is, though?  I haven't looked her up yet.

To keep a little stitching interest, here is another HAED from my layaways:


Prindle's 'Untamed Spirit'.

IHSW - February

QS Lovers

Before:



After:



Once again, aliens have invaded my stitching.  This has happened before.

A Random HAED

I completely forgot that I was going to show one HAED from my layaways in each of my posts until they were done - so instead I'm going to show one off randomly for now.

Because I don't want to put one in the IHSW post.

So this is the next of Sessler's Masquerade series:

'Allis Vanity'

It's one of the older ones, as you can see by the much smaller picture.  I particularly like this fellow for the peacocks in the corners.  His elaborate feathered mask is a thing of beauty, too.

I love this series.  'Bluebird' is the only one in color - wouldn't they be awesome all done and framed with Bluebird in the center, and the others in a sort of circle around him?  Except I don't have a wall that big.

Also, it will take years to get them all done.  Since there are nine of them.  But I'm not really worried about that - obviously!

A Bit Batty!

Two little bats -



For the first page of Amanda and Axel.  All the black is done.

There is a long, long way to go!



The next page has tons of black, so you probably will not see it until sometime in March.

February Turtle Trot

I waited a bit late in the day to take my picture, so it's sort of yellow and dim.
But these are the three projects on the Turtle-Trot list that I worked on:
Fred, Snowing, and the tiny start of Guardian Angel that I did today!



Next month I hope to have these three and three more to show :D

IHSW is this weekend!

It's time for the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend again - you can go here to join!

I'm going to work on QS Lovers as usual - last month I did so little that I didn't bother taking a picture, so here's the last time I took a photo:


She only got a tiny bit more of her skin, he got maybe ten stitches of his.  I'd like to get all their face skin done.

...

That sounded vaguely creepy.

HAED has a sale, and I didn't buy anything!  Go me, lol!  But my cousin that wants all the Hannah Lynn's bought one more QS during the sale.  She let me pick :D

I chose QS Heart on Her Sleeve


I picked her because I like the bottle stuck in her hair.  I'm not sure why. But she's very pretty!  Lots more black in my future, though.  Which , by the way - I'm almost done with the black of Amanda & Axel's first page.  There's a lot more on the big ones than the QS's; maybe I should have started Wintergreen Wishes first... oh well.  

Tomorrow I will have a pic for the Turtle Trot!

Kitten Projects

That's what I've been working on this week, but I've not made a lot of progress, as usual.

Someday, I'll not only have days to just stitch, I will prevent myself from being distracted by computer games and other flotsam and actually get some real progress :D

Anyway - Snowing!



I doubled what I had done.  Doesn't make it a lot.  It is tiny on this 28ct!

I'm still quite slow with parking, although I must admit I'm enjoying it a lot.  It's keeping things interesting.  I'll never know how some people can keep track of dozens of colors, though.  I'm having a bit of trouble with six needles getting all tangled up.

Here's a full-picture with a red square showing how much I've done so far.  I think it's going to pick up speed as I get more used to the parking method.



Today was my day to see how much I could get done on Fred, since I thought I was going to a very quiet job site.  Usually I have hours to work on a project there, but not today!  It was almost as busy as my other job sites!  Yech.  But I got a bit done.



All the light blue finished up on the one book, some of the black, and down a bit more on the other book.

He'll get another day or two this month.  Should be enough to finish his main crosses up.  Then it's on to the crosses that I have to use gold blending filament with.  There is also a lot of backstitching, french knots and couching in my future.

I got another HAED layaway paid off, but I'm not going to drown you guys in pics this time!  I'm sure you're tired after all those WSnB pics!  So I will show you the new pretties one at a time.  First - Glamour by Marta Dahlig.  I've wanted her for a while.  I love the way she makes you look twice.  I'm going to try and stitch her without the grey background to save a few years off my life.  She isn't in my immediate future plans, though.  Not even to buy floss for, at the moment.  I'm kitting up 'Amanda and Axel' and 'Asian Fantasy 3' first.  Then she might get her turn.

Trying Out Goals Again

I used to do this - and stick to it a little.

So I thought I'd give it another whirl.  I must do something to get this startitis under control!

Goals for February:

1.  Work on 'Snowing', make some progress.  Don't care how much.

2.  Finish the leaves and all the 3371 in 'Nostalgy's hair.

3.  Work on 'Lovers' during IHSW and get the girl's main skin colors done.

4.  Start Guardian Angel because he's for a SAL

5.  Don't start anything else.

6.  Finish a stocking ornament.

7.  Work on afghans

8.  Admit that I started something else on January 31st.

Oh, I can take care of that last goal right now!  I said I was going to start a Hannah Lynn in January, and I did!  On the evening of the very last day!  Lol!  Remember I posted a poll?  Well, this was the winner:



Amanda and Axel.

And start them I did!  Even though they are not kitted up yet.  I had bought the fabric and a few of the 27 (!) skeins of black required.  So I decided to do all the black first.  I'm currently on the first page, in the middle of that second little bat.  As soon as this page's black is done, I'll show you a picture!

9.  Last goal - work on Fred while at my easy job site Feb 7th, see if I can finish up his basic stitching.