A Boat and the Next 'A' Project

So I said I was going to finish this boat:

I totally finished that boat:

Yay!  The number that shows through on the white is supposed to vanish when I soak it after it's done.

This is the next section I will be working on for 'Sunset Birds':

I've already done a few of the pink areas but I didn't do enough to take a picture.

Next up in the rotation was an Alphabet turn, and next on that list is 'A Whole Lotta Latte'.  This was a Crazy January start, I think.  It might have been a Birthday start.  Anyway, I barely got any done and this was more than two years ago.

 

So this turn I finished up the top coffee cup! Whoo hoo!  It's very bright and pretty - the main yellow, pink and green flosses are almost neon bright.  Love it!  It does still need the backstitching, though.

Next is a free turn - I'm starting something new!  But it's tiny, so I think it will be done within a day or two.  I'll show it to you next post - if I do get it done that fast, I'll work on 'Sunset Birds' for the other days of my turn.  Then it's back to the Alphabet list :D

This has been so fun so far!

Happy Stitching, darlings!

Tama

'A is for Anchor' - B is for Boat?

Prairie Schooler's 'A is for Anchor' has an anchor! and a boat! and a giant bird!

I got a lot more done this turn than I did the last one.  This is now halfway done :D

Next is a free turn - I get to stitch whatever I want and what I want is 'Sunset Birds'.  Another little boat!

Next time you see it, this little boat will be done! I am determined :D

I didn't get any more of my China kits out to take more pictures - I will get to the rest of them soon.  I have several small ones on their way to me - the ones that cost $3-$5 and are so cute!  Maybe those will be the next ones I show.

I am also working on updating the old page I had showing every single one of my WIPs and UFOs. It's kind of nice to be deleting several that are finished now.  But tough getting them all in alphabetical order with updated WIP pics XD

Back in a few days - Happy Stitching!

Tama

A HAED, A DGC, and a Rotation Change

So!  I forgot to post my last start in Stitch Maynia.  Or the progress on it, I mean :D

This is Regal Tiger, a Dimensions Gold Collection:

And here's where I got.  I really don't like doing that dark color! Six strands - talk about sore fingers!!! But I got almost all of that area done - I took turns with it and the other colors.

So that ends Stitch Maynia!

Now, after Stitch Maynia I got to thinking about all the new starts and all my old starts and I sat down and looked at all my pictures from lately and years ago, too.  I counted them all up and nearly fell over.  I am not about to admit the total, but it was high.  Much higher than I thought.  Not anywhere near Ms Linda or those other brave people doing the Year of Starts, but still!

Some of them, too, have not been worked on in years.  By which I mean, ten years or maybe even longer.  One of them I started in High School and it hasn't been touched since.  Holy cow...  And I'll admit that recently I've been saying 'wow, I should get that back out' a lot.

So - rotation rearrange - I'm getting them back out.  The lot of 'em.  I put them all in alphabetical order and I'm keeping the five days for each project, but I'm going to do it like this - 1st turn, whatever I want.  2nd turn, next on the alphabet list.  3rd turn, whatever I want.  4th turn, whatever's next on the list.  And so on, ad infinitum.

First turn this time was 'Unspoken', my HAED - I really wanted to get back to this.  I've given up - for now - on the 'rows instead of columns' idea - it just wasn't working for me.  I thought I'd try what a lot of people are doing for the HAED facebook challenge and finish off my page 2 one color at a time.  So I did a whack of 762.  Not all of it, but about three columns worth and a teeny bit of other colors (from before I made the decision).

Here's as it was:

And as it now is:

Next turn (which I'm working on now) is A is for Anchor.  The first of my alphabetized list!  Here's where I left it:

I'm hoping to make a big ol' lot of progress :D  It's already going quite well!

A little stash before I go - here's yet another great big China kit.  I think this is last of the truly huge ones that I have.

It's only called 'Garden' on most of the listings.  I have seen it called 'Cottage Garden', though, so that's what I'm going with.  It has slightly fewer pages than the last few:

Twenty total.  This one is immensely popular - I've seen it on a lot of flosstube videos and blogs, but only in the small size.  I got the BIG size - go big or go home! (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Here's what came out of the package:

And it opened up to show the floss:

It's all sorted, just folded over on itself.  There are 44 colors.

And here's the fabric!  This one just makes four feet long.  It's going to be so pretty!  But it's also solid stitching XD

I really, really could never buy anything again and still have more to stitch than I could possibly finish before I die.  That didn't stop my from going to JoAnn's today and buying a pile of floss.  I had a one-day only 4 DMC for $1 coupon.  I also got some McCall's patterns that were on sale, a World of Cross Stitch magazine and a new Q-Snap frame.  The only good thing about so many doctor's appointments is that my new doctor is only 5 minutes from JoAnn's!!!

Happy Stitching, dears!

Tama

Purse Kits Progress

I meant to do this last week - I really did!

These first ones are the two projects that are riding about in my two different bags (only one is actual 'purse' size).  I have two different part time jobs and I need different stuff for each one, so I just put a project in each bag.  Sometimes, the smaller bag goes in the bigger bag, too, but oh well XD.

Fizzy Moon 'Friends' is riding around in one since I finished 'Love, Love, Love'.  It did look like this after its Maynia turn:

Now it looks like this:

Nearly done!

Next is my 'Live Simply' kit by Dimensions:

Last time I showed it, it looked like this:

And I've made pretty good progress on it for something that might get 15 minutes a day!

And here is one you guys have not seen before (I think) - I was going to a doctor about 15 minutes away, once every month or so, and sitting in her waiting room for about an hour.  I had a little purse I took with me only then and this kit was in it.  It is 'Coffee Chalkboard' by Janlynn.

Sorry about the orts in there - didn't notice them until I had uploaded the pic!  Here's how far I got with it before I switched doctors - last month?  Yes, in April.  It has not been worked on since, because I was taking 'Love, Love, Love' with me to the new one.

I will say that there is stitching on the chart that is not in model picture, and stitching in the model picture that is not on the chart.  So I'm picking what I like and leaving out what I don't :D  This one is going to be my 'to-the-doctor' kit again, though, because 'Love, Love, Love' is done!  I finished it up on April 26th.  Here's how it looked:

And the last row finished it off!  Now it just needs a bath and to be ironed before I start saving up for framing :D

It still makes me think of the Beatles song!

I was going to post about these kits once a week but I think I will make it once a month - I don't know if I will actually have progress on any of them once a week.  My new doctor is an hour and a half away (but so much better), but I can't stitch in a moving vehicle on curvy roads and only the last half hour is on the four-lane.  I live in the boonies, you know!  And once I get there, I rarely have to wait more than 10 minutes (so nice!)

I'll do my best to remember to post about these next month - someone remind me if I forget!

Happy Stitching!

Tama

The Last of Stitch Maynia

Okay, I'm late again.  Story of my life.

Here is project #5 - 'The Tie That Binds' from 'Words to Stitch By':

I ended up with two -TWO - doctor's visits, after all, so there was less time for this than I hoped.  However, I'm am very satisfied with my progress!  Although, I must admit, the DMC conversion does not look a whole lot like that pattern picture.  I noticed it when I got the floss, but I decided not to change it, because the person that this will eventually be given to will love these colors :D

The knotwork border is Olive Green, not Brown.  Otherwise the colors match fairly well.  Maybe the dark color in the flower is a bit redder.  So pleased with this one :D

And yeah, I decided to go for one last start - six total. (On the 30th I am not starting a new one.  I think I will pick up my HAED, 'Unspoken'.  I miss it.)

For the last one, I decided to go big.  Not quite HAED big, but pretty big, none the less!

Lovely, lovely, lovely!  Except that the dark color I started with, just behind his ear, is SIX strands of floss in a half stitch.  My fingers are sore from the effort of getting that through the fabric, and there is a ton of that symbol! But I shall persevere :D

I have still more China kits to show you!  This is one I've been searching to find for quite a while -it comes up on eBay and Aliexpress but it's usually the smaller version.  I wanted the big one!  It's called 'Golden Lillies'.  It finally popped up on eBay in the large size and I grabbed it.

I forgot to take a picture of the pages layout, but there are 24.  It has 23 colors - less than usual but SO MUCH FLOSS!  You'll see!

Here's the folded fabric -

And I unfolded it to find this -

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

And then here is the huge 5 foot long fabric:

I am just itching to start one of these huge ones but I will finish Sunset Birds first!

Happy stitching, guys!  Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend - I have it off!  Whoo hoo!

Tama

The Horse, the Horse!!!

Guys!!!

Look at what came back up as an available pattern on etsy!

Hayley the Horse, by Zizidora, if anyone wants to grab her.  She went straight into my cart!!!

I'm glad I bought the simpler PlanetJune horse, though - this one is super-duper complicated!  Look at this picture that is shown on the listing:

Holy smokes!  When I get around to her, she is going to take a while!  But she is so pretty and so detailed!  She even has her fetlocks!!! And you can't see it, but she has a cleft bum XD  I laughed so hard when I saw that picture!

So my Amigurumi to-do list is currently:  Bigfoot (almost done, JoJo!), an Alien, a cupcake, possible Orca, a fuzzy Yeti, a PlanetJune yeti, a Pegasus from the PlanetJune horse, and then Hayley.  Also, the Fairy Hideaway tree is almost done.  I only need to sew it together but I ran out of yarn.  I'm looking for a close enough match :D  Then I will be back with pictures.

Happy Stitching!

Tama

A Late Post, with more StitchMaynia

I had a lot of doctor's visits the last two weeks - I switched doctors and this one is so very, very thorough!

So not a lot of time for posting, and sadly not a lot of time for stitching.  But here's the bit I have done!

So, Fizzy Moon kit 'Friends' was start #3 for StitchMaynia:

And I got this far, mostly sitting in waiting rooms:

I like that stripey red hat!  I did make one counting mistake in out - I've pulled out the wrong stitches, but I have to put one stitch of dark red back in.  This one is interesting - it has those funny stacked stitches that you only seem to see in British patterns.

Here was my choice for start #4:

My father loves the 'Footprints in the Sand' story, so this will be for him.  One of my first cross stitch projects was the Lord's Prayer done almost all in backstitch so this will sort of match.  That one has been hanging on my parents' wall for years.

There are several versions of this story done in cross stitch - one is a kit by Bucilla - but this is the one I like the most.  For one thing, it has the whole story on it, and I really like the 'delicate' look of it.  I'm stitching it on the recommended fabric, which is 28ct Mushroom Lugana.  It's not quite the same color as pictured, though.  I wonder if the color has changed since this pattern was published?  I know you can tell from the price that it's pretty old!  It was published in 1985.

This one didn't go to the doctors with me, as I don't like taking something this big.  So it got a total of two evenings work on it:

It was slightly slow going even then, as I got the hang of doing backstitched words over two.  I don't think I've done that before!  I was just getting in the groove when it was time to switch projects - that's the only thing I don't like about my rotation!

And here is start #5!  I started it on the 20th.  It's from this lovely book, and I'm doing the one on the cover.

No doctor visits for a few days, so I'm hoping for some good progress :D  It's charted for NPI silks, but I can't afford those, so I'm doing the DMC conversion.  The colors are therefore a little different, but you'll see when I post my progress picture.  Hopefully, not as late as this time!

I do want to show you my 'purse' kits and their progress but I'll save that for tomorrow - maybe make a Sunday tradition of it :D  They usually get a little work done on them every week.

For now, though, here is (yet another) China pre-printed kit :D :D :D  I actually got this one a while ago but forgot to post about it.  It's not one of my brand-new goodies.  I do love it, though!

The listing only called it 'Horses' so I will have to see what the name actually is.  It's a very nice stylized drawing.  This one has 14 pages, half of which are smaller pages.  So it's roughly the same as a HAED Quick-Stitch.

Except of course, on giant fabric XD  This one is 3 feet long and about 1 1/2 feet high.  It came with two needles and has a lot of floss colors (37, I think), and one of the big twisted skeins of extra floss.  I thought it would be black, but actually the darkest color on the piece is a very dark green.  So there's a green horse in there!

Here is is with the 8x10 booklet laying on it.  I blacked out the floss key, so no one can yell at me about showing what is almost a pattern.  I don't think anyone could see the picture well enough to stitch from it but why risk it?

Well, that's all for me tonight - I'll try to show my purse kits and maybe my diamond painting tomorrow!

Happy Stitching!!!

Tama

Sleepy Kitten, Maynia Start #3, and Tigers!

Hullo, all!

Here is my progress on start #2 - as a reminder, it's supposed to look like this:

The tea things and the daises are solidly stitched, but I didn't want to stitch all that white on white fabric.  So, instead of doing in on 14 count white aida, I chose to do it on 28 count Glass Blue Monaco.  Here's my start:

I finished all of the B5200 in the daises and have started on the other colors.  I'm looking forward to working my way down the vase!

Here's start #3 - I have a lot of doctor appointments coming up and I wanted something small to take with me - it's still going to get its five days of work, but if for some reason I don't finish it, it'll go in my purse.  (I finished the Love, Love, Love kit that was going about in my smaller purse, but I keep forgetting to take a picture!)

It's a free Fizzy Moon kit that came with an issue of World of Cross Stitch.  It's called 'Friends' and is to be finished into a little card.  I'll probably give it to my mom, 'cause she'll use it to decorate with :D

And now, another China kit :D :D :D

This one is a big one (yay!) and is called 'Tiger Family'.  Here's the picture on the booklet.

And the pattern page layout:

Twenty four fairly solid-stitch pages.  This is what came out of the package - a big, heavy piece of fabric with three packs of two needles each!  I hope these don't make my fingers burn like the others did!  Six extra needles is a nice thing :D

When I unfolded it, this is the floss pile I saw.  It's all sorted, no worries there, it's just folded around the floss sorters.  I think this one has 44 colors.

Then I unfolded the giant fabric - it's just shy of four feet long and about 30 inches tall:

Yeeks!  This is going to take a while!  But I think I'm going to love every stitch!  I can't wait until my Dad has time to make my big frame so I can work on one of these giant kits!

Happy Stitching guys!  I'll be back around the 15th with whatever I start next!

Tama