Frederick the Literate

Definitely sticking with this rotation...

I.

Finished.

Fred!!!

Granted, he really didn't have that much further to go, but still!

Here he is in all his kitty-glory :D

The metallics were the worst, and they barely even show in the picture - there are rows and rows of metallic backstitching on those red books.  I only left it off in one place, on the big green book behind his bum on the top shelf.  I hated the way it looked on the kit picture and it wasn't any better in real life, so it's not there.

Anyway, here's his wee face, finally with some whiskers.

Picture's a bit dark, sorry!  I didn't do the best job on couching his whiskers, but they're not too bad.  At least he has them!  Poor Fred has been a UFO for years, got taken out a few times, and then ended up right back in my UFO pile.  But he's done now, and he's lovely!

Frederick the Literate is a Dimensions kit, if anyone is interested in stitching him themselves, and he's not hard at all.  I'm just lazy XD

I was supposed to work on whatever project was in this spot of my rotation until the 14th, and start working on another on the 15th.  I finished Fred last night, on the 12th, and I decided to just work on some of my Sprites from DorkStitch until the 15th rolls around.  With whatever I shall work on :D

The Turtle Trot of March!

Well, I still did not manage to work on everything this month but I did manage to work on some different things.

1.  Wufei - worked on, yay!  First time since last March :D

Before:

After:

I didn't take a wide shot; I'll do that next month!

2. Frederick the Literate - worked on!  I did a bunch of backstitching.

Before:

After:

3. Snowing - worked on! First time since 2013!!!

Before:

After  (blurry night shot, sorry!):

I forgot how tiny the stitches are on this - I'm doing it one over one on 28ct and also it is my first project trying the parking method - it's slow going but fun!

4. Yarr - nope.  Poor Yarr.  So handsome, yet so neglected :C

5. Princess Palace - nope.

6. Mary Wigham - nope.

7. 30 Tiny Christmas Stockings - DONE OMG!!!

I will be replacing this with ...uh, something.  I have told myself that I must decide which project by tomorrow!

8. Lovers - yes!  During IHSW

Before:

After:

9. Great Light - yes!  Got one more color done, although it was only a few stitches.  I meant to go back and do another color that only has a small amount, but I forgot.  Kept thinking I had done it.

Before:

After:

I got a some missed stitches of blue done, as well - there were only a few.

10.  Unspoken - yes!!!

Before:

After:

There are pics of what these will look like on my 2015 SAL page, and Turtle Trot is hosted HERE

Thanks for looking - I really think I'll go get Yarr out!!!

The Time of the Great Back Stitching

Fred.

Oh, Fred, Fred, Fred...

May I never leave all the back stitching until the end ever again!!! 

Fred's bottom bookshelf got some love yesterday because I had the day off and 16 inches of snow outside!  I have fifteen books to finish and knocked off almost seven yesterday - I have to go back and put some page details with one strand of black on that sideways book and a few strands of metallic on the small blue book.

He looked like this:

And now like this:

The book titles are hard to see in the pic; they are 'Garbage Can Cats', 'Catalog of Hairballs', 'Holy Cats', 'Three Wined Mice', 'A Tale of Two Kitties' and '5 Fish Ponds' (Not sure if that is supposed to be the title or sort of like #5 in a series of travel books?).  Eight books, the Owl, his back half, and his whiskers to go.

I have discovered, though, that I have some re-stitching to do - I found a tutorial last year that was supposed to make prettier stitches and be easier - a way to anchor extremely long back stitches like Dimensions kits often have, instead of piercing the Aida fabric - it worked beautifully at the time but in the months since I worked on him the floss has relaxed and separated and looks terrible!  So I have to redo that leaning brown book 'Bye Bye Birdie' next to his head and paw.  If you look close, you can see where it sagged and looks really bad.  But it shouldn't take too long to fix.  Guess sometimes the old ways really are the best :D

Today at work it was really quiet (see afore-mentioned 16 inches of snow) so guess what I did?

Yep, finished it off!

SO. MUCH. BACK. STITCHING.  There is tons of it in that wreath, and half you can't even see!  But it's pretty and it's finished - #29 of 30!  Only the 'Noel' stocking to go!

The First Turtle Trot Post

After a lot of planning and re-planning, here's my Turtle-Trot choices and what I have done on them so far!  Most I have not gotten to as of yet.

1. Chang Wufei - a pattern I made in PC Stitch.  I've not touched him yet; he's the same as he was last April:

2. Frederick the Literate - a Dimensions kit; he still only needs his backstitching.  Haven't touched him since April, either.

3. Snowing - a pattern from the old Witch Stitch and Bits site.  I'm not sure if this kitty is on the new Witchykitt site or not.  He looks just like my darling Audio except Audio had a white tip to his tail.  I plan to adjust when I reach his tail so he's a match.  I haven't touched him in almost two years.  (Last year, I had misplaced him.)

4. Yarr - a HAED.  Started last January, and another victim of my cross-stitch hiatus that began in April '14.

5. Princess Palace - a kit by Bothy Threads.  Yet another April victim, and not touched since then.

6.  Mary Wigham - this used to be a freebie pattern.  I don't know where to get it now.  Also not stitched on since April.  My goal for this month is to pull out the invisible motif and restitch it.

7. 30 Tiny Christmas Stockings - a Bucilla kit.  You can see the ones I've stitched if you click on my 'Christmas' tag.  This one I did work on some - I finished off one stocking and started another!  I also finished one last year that I don't think was ever posted. So I have three left to go, or two and a half, I guess.

Last years:

Lately:

Newly started:

8. QS Lovers - this was a HAED Freebie SAL piece, you can't buy it like this.  Also, the artist retired and you can't buy the big version, either.  I will be working on this one during the IHSW weekend so it has had no love yet.

9. I was going to work on a little kit called 'Oops' but I think I'm going to have to condense my SALs a bit due to longer hours at work.  So 'Unspoken' will be number 9.  I started it January 1st.  'Oops' will replace the Stockings kit when I finish those off.  He's had a bit more than this done, but I'm saving it for the SAL post at the end of the month.

10. Great Light - I have a bunch of these 5x7 Christmas kits - I used to finish one a year so that's the goal for this one.  I'm stitching in one color at a time.  I did the grey stitching a while back, I've worked on the first shade of blue this month.  It's not done yet.

I took a crooked, dark picture.  I need to quit waiting until the last minute to take pictures!!!

And that's that for the Turtle Trot!  Next month will be some progress, I hope!

A Cat for a Cat

I'm late with the final projects!  I worked all day, every day the last few days so they're a bit skimpy!

I mentioned last year that I started HAEDs Guardian Angel - this lovely thing:

I left it at my Mother's house and it sort of disappeared - no one could find it but last week it turned up shoved in the corner of a closet - I had it in a cloth project bag and someone in my family (no one will 'fess up!*) spilled coffee or chocolate milk or something all down the side.  Then they hid it.  The floss is fine because it was in a ziploc bag, and the pattern was only a few pages of a working copy, but the fabric is very, very stained so I will be washing and dyeing it!  I had barely started it, so I wasn't all that upset.

So anyway, since I can't find Snowing, I thought I would restart it and maybe it could take Snowing's place.  So here's project #29 - Guardian Angel restarted:

Then I thought of a better replacement - poor, poor, poor neglected Frederick!  I will be putting him in the Turtle-Trot, and if Snowing turns up before he's finished, I'll put it back in.  If not, Guardian Angel will go in.  Here's Fred's progress, for project #30!

I backstitched the rest of 'Puss in Boots', then 'The Three Mouseketeers' (it's a little flashburned), 'Nine Lives', and most of the bird.  Only his legs to go!  I also started the gold/metallic blend stitches on the big green book.  The top shelf is very close to done!

And finally, project #31!  I started 'Mai' by Dimensions

I don't know how well the tan half stitches showed up, but they are there!  Not easy to stitch without my lamp (I started her at work)  She's destined for my bedroom wall, someday!  I have lots of Oriental-style kits and I want a few of them done soon!  Maybe I can get her done this year.




* - I kinda think it was a young member of the family, who thought they'd get yelled at.

Fruits of a Neglected Garden

I thought the garden was done for the year - I went out to pull up some of the dead, dried up plants and found a very short, fat cucumber!  I laughed - it was sort of funny-looking.

Then I went toward the last of my zucchini plants and noticed something dark green and shiny under the dried-up leaves.

Oh, my.

I brought my loot in and laid my cordless phone down next to them for size reference.  The first is the cucumber.  The rest is zucchini.



That is the single biggest zucchini I have ever grown!  Mostly because I pick them small, but still!

Also, we planted watermelons this year, and they didn't do very well.  At least, in the 'real' garden, they didn't!  But earlier in the summer, we had a pool party and someone apparently spit their seeds into the old, empty flower beds that line one side of the pool.



Those are some good-sized watermelons, considering we just decided to leave the plants and see what would happen, and they got no attention at all.  Not even Miracle-Grow.  We are picking them tomorrow and I will take a picture with something for size reference.  There are three or four other watermelons on the plants, but they are not this big yet and we are trying to nurse them along, with newspaper over them at night to keep the cold away.

Here's a tiny bit of stitching for you - I took this picture a week or two ago and forgot about it.  It is Fred with a little more than 1/4 of his backstitching done.  I'm working on the second half of the top shelf, now.  He still needs his whiskers, but they are last!  It's taking me a little bit of time since I found some missed stitching, there are metallics, and also I keep putting him down to work on afghans.



And another HAED for your viewing pleasure!  This is Sun and Stars by Katerina KouKiotis:



And QS Kissy Fish by Hannah Lynn



By the way - there is an un-announced 50% off sale at HAED right now!  May I have another layaway, please?