Love, a Cowboy, a SAL and Maybe a Start?

I misplaced (I have no idea how) the project that was going around in my purse with me, so I got out an old kit to work on.  It's 'Love, Love, Love' by Charmin' Kits.  I am stitching it 'love-row' at a time - here's where it was:

And here it is now:

There's only one row to go - it's the biggest one, though, but I think I can do it pretty quick.  I think.  It's the word 'Love' in rainbow colors.  I think I could make this my first finish of 2016 :D

For my rotation turn - my Cowboy!  The kit is called 'Acquainted with the Night', and is a very old kit by Design Works.  Here is where I was:

I was struck by the sudden need to stitch a horse, and so I did:

I almost finished its shadow, too :D  A little more of the background around it, then I'm going to start the backstitching.  The colors look so weird up close but from a distance, they look like the horse and rider are outlined in light from the golden setting sun.  It's gorgeous, but I'm not sure the picture conveys it.  Ah, well.

I'm a member of a facebook group called Stitch Maynia; I love to read the posts but I never post anything.  I'm a lurker!  But they do monthly stitch alongs with easy rules - just stitch on something that matches the theme!  For March, they have 'It's Not Easy Being Green' where all you need is a project with green in it.  I have another small kit that will be for either my Mum or my sibling, both of whom love daisies:

It's barely started, but would make a nice gift, so I joined the SAL to give it a bump :D  I'll be taking it to work with me in March, along with 'Love, Love, Love' - I'll have a purse rotation, lol!!!  Here's where it is:

If I don't get it done, April's SAL on the group is 'April Showers Bring May Flowers', so I can just keep right on going with the same thing :D :D :D

Finally - I've seen on a few Flosstube videos and stitchy blogs that some people are starting a new project on Leap Year Day... that had not occurred to me but I'm very tempted to do it!  Just a sudden, impulsive start of anything I want!  I'll post tomorrow if I decide to take the plunge!!!

Happy Stitching!

Tama

Unspoken, Snappers AGAIN, & Another New Start

I worked on 'Unspoken' for maybe 2 of the 5 days he should have gotten - I got distracted by jigsaw puzzles.

He was here:

Now he's here:

At least there are some soft-focus branches starting to show up!

Snappers got another turn but I neglected it, too.  I managed to finish up the September block and all the border next to it:

So Snappers is now 3/4ths of the way done!

The lighting was dim so the colors are still not correct - the leaves are a beautiful medium green and the grapes are brighter purple.  Oddly, the pear looks almost right.

I didn't finish 'Acquainted with the Night' for my father's Christmas present last year (obviously) but I had intended to finish it up this year.  I had some unopened kits laying on my table when he came up the other day, though, and he picked one up and said, "Wow - I haven't seen that picture in years!  That's a really old picture - my parents had that on the wall when I was a kid.  Are you going to stitch that one?"  So of course I am!!!  He may get two stitched presents this year, because I want to finish up Night, as well.

But here's the one he liked - excuse the flash, please:

'Portrait of Christ' - Designs for the Needle by Praying Hands for Leisure Arts.  How's that for a title? lol!  I started it on the 30th, so it's this far:

I haven't worked on it yet today, but I will.  And I will be working on it until the 4th :D  Then I will probably pick the Snappers back up - I want to finish them!  But I may work on Gift of the Eagle Feather first.  We'll see how it goes.

Happy stitching, guys!  I'm admiring all your new starts!

Tama

Angel of Grace

All done up!

I got an extra day as my framer had to close on the 9th so I'm going in tomorrow.  Therefore, I had a bit of breathing room.

Finished her up last night and she's lovely!  There's an ort laying next to her wingtip in the picture, but I plan to take a better one after she's been pressed, anyway.

She's currently drying from a very successful bath.  She's so gorgeous!  I wish you guys could see her in person!!!

She's 11x17 on 32ct Bay Leaf Joblean.  I don't have a start date, and she languished in my UFO pile for years, so I can't really say how long she took.  But she's done and I'm thrilled :D :D :D

I have two more finishes to show you tomorrow - I will be scheduling the post 'cause tomorrow is Framer & Christmas Shopping Day.  I plan to be happily exhausted XD

In the Home Stretch

I am so close to being finished with Gracie!

If she's going to be framed for my Mum for Christmas, she has to be done, washed, dry, ironed, and ready to go by the time I go to bed on the 8th.

So even though I'm close, I have to stay busy!  Tomorrow and Friday I won't have much time to stitch - Sunday, either.  So it's down to Saturday and Monday.

I did up all the roses on her skirt (aka confetti-land):



And I am somewhere around 2/3rds done with the ruffle:



I have to finish the last, large bit of ruffle and then go back and do all the metallic bits that I left.

Then she will be done!

I'm thinking of posting my daily progress just to keep myself on track.  We'll see :D


PS - I also have to get my nephew's Lego-Letter name done by Tuesday evening, but I only have to finish backstitching the bottom border on that.  I'll show you guys soon!

A Pun, in Stages

For my BIL's Christmas present, I have stitched a pun!

Here it is, in stages.

Can you guess what it says?

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Silly puns make me smile :D :D :D  and my BIL really likes them.  This pattern came from nerdylittlestitcher on etsy.  I have several more of her patterns and I will be doing another for my brother's present.

This one didn't take me all five days; two of the days, I did not stitch but slept instead XD

This is also kind of a double-present.  I showed it to my sis to make sure BIL would like it and after declaring yes! she said she would also hang it in her vegetable-themed kitchen and requested more of the same.  So yay!

Two Project Updates :D

I've been such a bad blogger, I know!

But I am sticking with my rotation so here you go with two projects - I have another but I will show it tomorrow.

On the tenth, I knew I had some days of double shifts ahead of me even though I was promised no more (the things I do for a bigger paycheck!) and so I chose an easy project that had been riding around in my purse.

It is the first name that I'm doing in the Lego Block alphabet.  Here's where it was on the 10th:

I was worried that since I changed the width of the piece that I might have to fiddle with the border, so I worked over to the right side without finishing the letters.  Then I took my marker and did some counting:

Works out perfect :D  Here's where I finished up on the 14th - close to halfway done.  I would say more than halfway done, but there's a huge amount of backstitching in this, obviously!

Two letters, the border blocks, and a metric ton of backstitch to go!  This is a really fun, easy piece - all bright colors and the pattern is easy to work with and most of the time you barely have to look at it.

On the 15th, I got out my HAED, Unspoken.  Here's where he was last time:

And I finished up those two columns and started the confetti of the next two.  It's only about six colors, but they are scattered and random.  Once I get that done, the fill-in of the Winter White is easy-peasy, mindless stitching.  I'm pretty sure I'll have a page finish when this gets its next turn!

And on the 20th, I started a new project and finished it up today!  I will show it tomorrow :D

IHSW - Angels and Rabbits

I worked on two projects during IHSW - I chose my Lavender and Lace 'Angel of Grace' to work on next in my rotation and I absolutely will not take her to work with me.  I'm terrified of getting her dirty.  Since I work all weekend, I made sure to take something else along.

Here's a picture of the Angel of Grace (I call her Gracie) as she will look when she's finished:

And the most recent picture I could find of her - which is not very recent.  I don't think I've picked her up since early last year. 

So here's how she is now - still in the Q-snap because I'll be working on her until whatever time I put my stitching away on the 24th.

I got more of that big white piece done, some ribbon and some of the pale pink beside the white.

The project I took to work was my bunnies,  These were a Crazy January start in 2013 or 2014.  They got very little love at the time.

How they will look - sorta, I'm doing the pink and the blue, and then I'm going to do some words and a green one.  (These are a free pattern from Hazel's Farm - I can't find the link.)

So here's the picture I took way back when I started them:

And how they look now:

Lest you think I spent all my time at work stitching, I did have a little more of the pink bunny already done. :D  These will continue to come to work with me; I want to finish them up so I can try and make them into a cushion.  They will be a gift for my Mum, with a story behind it which I'll tell when they're done.  I'm going to try - dunno if it will last long - to finish two things before starting a new one... but I got four projects I want to start so we'll just see how that goes!

Hope you all had a great stitchy weekend!  I'm off to check out some blogs :D :D :D

How to Make a Goth Kid Squee

To make a Goth kid squee - take a crochet hook and some yarn and do this:

 That's an amigurumi of Edgar Allen Poe, and a wee Raven named 'Nevermore'.

After having fun, yourself, by posing them in a few dead trees and bushes...

...present them to your Goth Kid.  They will immediately prop them against the 'fascinating rock' they found earlier that day, balance Nevermore on Edgar's head, squee very loudly...

And then have an absolute fit of giggles!

Worth every stitch, I promise!!!

Happy Birthday, Goth Kid - may you enjoy Edgar and Nevermore for years!

Updates - Finish and Stash! (lotsa pics)

I finished the PM Brave... hmm, either Saturday night or Sunday night.  I forget which!  But I've been too busy to post until today.

Isn't he cute?


Here he is with the girl - they need the names added under them, then they'll be cut apart (poor things!) because I want the canoe between them and also I want them to turn toward each other instead of having their backs to each other.


I'm back to working on the eagle, but there isn't a lot of the next shade I chose, so I'll be starting the two in the canoe (ooooo, rhyming!) soon.

I've also started the next Stocking, and since I'm posting today, I'll give you a shot of where it's at right now. I just started it yesterday at work and it's going really fast!


No, I started it Monday at work because yesterday I went to JoAnn's for the big sale!  I had the day off, and it's far enough away that it is a day-long trip.  We also went grocery shopping to save a trip, but more about that in a few.

Here's one thing I got - I wanted kits but since I couldn't use my coupons on them (they were on sale at a whole 10% off - I think they were cheating so I couldn't buy them with coupons!), I directed my attention to the McCall's patterns that were 10 for $10.  There was a limit of 10 per customer, but Mum was with me and she got some for me.  They didn't have all 20 of the ones I wanted in stock, so here's the 16 I did get.


I love making costumes.  Most of these will challenge my skills but I don't care :D  I've got a detailed sewing plan that starts in January, when it's so cold and the roads are so icy that I have to turn down the offer of extra work because I don't have a four-wheel drive to get over the mountain.  I'll show pics when I start!

Since the kits were a bust, I focused on floss and got all of Night Hunter and Mosslord kitted up.  I won't bother with a pic - it was a big pile of mostly greys, black, dark browns and dark blues. I did spend enough for the 30% off card and I plan to go back on the 25th or 26th to kit up some more HAEDs!

We stopped at WalMart to get some grocery shopping done - and I nearly fell over!  It was 2002 the last time I saw any cross stitch stuff at our WalMart - yet, lo and behold! - a whole quarter aisle!  With DMC!!! Not every color, of course, but I got some greys that had empty bins at JoAnn's, and next time I'll know to stop off at WalMart first!

Also, I do like to take tiny kits along in my purse - I was out of them and right now the stockings are taking their place, but eventually those will be done.  I couldn't bring myself to buy them for $3 like at Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's, but I grabbed five at WalMart for 99cents each! Yay!




I got my UFO kit in the mail really fast, but I'll bore you guys with a pic of that next time :D  Also, there was a payday!  That meant more Random Generator picks of WS-n-B patterns!

This time's winners:

Hunting


Candle Light


Lastly - no update of the afghan.  I've left it alone all week, but I plan to work on it tomorrow evening after I get back from the dentist, and hopefully my hands will be fine!

I Totally Skipped Poor Fred

At work yesterday, I finished up the Eagle's current color:



So that's it for its turn in the rotation.  Next time I plan to do a shade of grey.

Frederick the Literate should have been next, but he was at home and my lunch break wasn't long enough to go get him (I was at the new site).  I did, however, have my PM Brave project with me.  So out he came.


And now looks like this - I was almost far enough along to backstitch his torso.  I decided I'll just stick with him for awhile - his rotation turn is in hours, not getting a color done.  So Fred's turn kinda got left behind.  Sorry, lil' kitty!

I've also finished up the last three Avengers Sprites - Hawkeye, Nick Fury, and the Hulk.


I need to bug Missy for Coulson and Bruce Banner, lol!

Mum's afghan is giving me some issues - it's making my pinky fingers go numb when I work on it.  This happened once before when I tried to stitch an Apache Tears afghan.  It's all the single crochets - I don't know if it's just the way they're made or the fact that I honestly don't care for them, but my tension is tighter when I work them and it affects my hands.  So I'm forced to take a break for a few days to let them rest.

Which is annoying, 'cause despite the singles, I'm enjoying this.  The pattern was easy to memorize, but is just enough to keep my attention focused so that I count just right.  Here's where I am:



Not too much like a scarf any more - bonus!  This is 27 repeats and I need... um, a lot more! 126 total, I think.  So 99 more?

Here's the back, just for interest - it will almost be reversible   That'll be fun.  My Da has a bad habit of turning afghans 'round the wrong way when he 'fixes' them on the bed or chair!

Nowhere Near Landing

You know that military saying 'The Eagle has landed?'

Mine's not even close.

Here's an update, though!



One shade of brown done, the next shade 2/3rds done.  Its turn in the rotation is not over, so there will be another pic later!

And the Ghost Cat is a ghost no longer!



'Home is Where the Cat Is' by Janlynn.
This was one of my Crazy Jan starts.  If any of you guys ever stitch this - be warned!  The backstitch is very difficult to read on the pattern, even though some of it is in red.  Also, there is more on the pic than in the pattern.  I squinted at the pic to get the cat's dark orange stripes done.  They don't show up really well, but they're cute!  Also, the pattern says one strand for the french knot eyes, but one strand was tiny!  Two strands looks like the picture on the kit, though.  The pattern also has his eyes one stitch higher than the picture.  I preferred it the way it was in the pic - much cuter!

Also, I've got my Avenger Sprites back out.  Like this as of this morning:



Then I finished up Natasha Romanov, aka Black Widow.




Mum's afghan would make a really sturdy scarf if I stopped now!



Here's a close up of the stitch pattern.  It's going a bit slow because it's mostly single crochets.  I dislike singles, but they have to be done! XD


And there was a small payday recently, so Random.org picked two more Witch Stitch patterns off my Wish List for me:

On Guard



and Life Begins Anew