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!

Another Stocking, and Leaves

I finished Stocking Ornament #24 of 30 on Monday - this one is (obviously) Baby Jesus.



Isn't the lamb cute?  I love how the designer gave some of these such a subtle stocking shape!  If it wasn't for the decoration at the top, this wouldn't look like a stocking at all, at least to me.

I ran into a problem when I decided to look at the finishing instructions for these - I used the size of fabric that came in the kit, although I swapped the huge piece out for smaller, already-cut bits I had.  However, the template for cutting them, and cutting the felt backing, is tiny.  There are no instructions to increase its size but there is no way they are going to fit.  Even if I had used 18 count instead of 14 count.  Maybe 20 count would fit.

You can just color me completely confused.

Anyway - Wednesday I worked on 'Oops' while I was at work (four extra shifts this week!  Eek!) and I stitched all the leaves.  Today I stitched the wee mousie that's hiding in the basket, and backstitched all the leaves and most of the stems.  I want to get the basket backstitched before I show a picture of that, but here's the leaves all stitched up!



And for the fun of it, another HAED!  This one is from an old layaway, I forgot to show it:

The Gardener by Alison Spokes



This is the 'mock-up' in virtual stitches - the detail looks great to me!  The background is sort of patchy, but I'm pondering stitching her one of those fabrics dyed to look like a cloudy sky.  I used to adore ladybugs, and I do love a garden!  So she was an easy pick for me.  (Too many of them are easy picks for me - lol!)

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!

Busy, Busy

I've been a wee bit busy this week - every single day at work!

Usually I have Monday-Wednesday pretty much free, but not this time.

Still - I had time to finish this:



And my Mum was helping me out with housework before the phone guy came to fix my lines, and found this:



I'm quite sure that several of you were actually able to hear my shriek of delight!

(She's not on lined fabric, by the way, just laying on a notebook for her photo-op)

Finished up the first shade of grey on the Eagle (blurry, sorry!)



I've already started the next shade - more red.  No pic yet, but I'm over halfway done.

No start on the next PM yet - I keep leaving the pattern.

Mum's afghan has increased some, but I'll not post a pic.  It looks the same, just bigger :D  Next post I'll try for a picture.

One other little project - I was at work without any stitching after finishing the Birdhouse Stocking, so I started the little butterfly kit I posted a pic of recently.  I'm not showing it yet, though - I decided to be silly and take a pic of each color being finished, then post them all at once.  I have no idea why!

Getting Back to a Rotation (Very Pic Heavy!)

Hello again!

Normally, in September, I would be putting away any projects except the HAED SAL, and starting gifts.

I'm not gonna do that this year.  Mainly because I had already planned on some of these being gifts :D

So here's how my rotation is now.

1. Fred!  He's not a gift, he's mine!!! But he's too close to being done to put away.  I finished off the green book, about half the blue, and started the last rust-colored one.  I have some black shadow to finish, too. Then there's only the gold metallic and the backstitching to go!



2. God Bless America.  This is for my Dad, for Christmas.  Here's how it did look - I haven't worked on it in a while.  I'm stitching the next darkest shade of brown on the Eagle and I have a good bit done, but I didn't dig it out for another pic yet.



3. A new start - but only sort of!  I was planning on stitching Psalm 23 for my parents' 40th anniversary - then Mum just mentioned, out of nowhere, that she'd rather have that Precious Moments set that I started a loooooooooooooong time ago.  I was like, 'what Precious Moments set?'  It took awhile, but I scraped up a pic of the finished girl (she just needs my Mum's name under or over her; I'm not using the original words that go with the patterns) I haven't actually found her yet, but I know she's in the box of finished but framed projects :



There will be a boy to go with her; he's my new start - planned for tomorrow:



Sorry for the crappy pic.  The flash is bright and the book is old.

And this will be the last part.  The part of the verse I'll be using says 'Many moons in the same canoe'. I'll be leaving off the 'Bless-Um You' as I always thought it was dumb (sorry) And instead of 'Happy Anniversary', just their wedding date.  My framer says she can put them all in one frame with three openings, four if I do the verse on a separate piece like it is in the pic.  I'm thinking of just doing it over the canoe, with the date under.


So I'll be starting the boy tomorrow - hopefully finishing him, this month!  My Mum is Native American and my Dad is about 1/4, although you can't see it in him at all.  He looks all Scottish :D  This will still be something she'll love and he'll like because she likes it.  They're still silly in love after 40 years!

4.  An ornament.  I finished another stocking!  I really like this one, too - I think it looks very Victorian!  The camera flash burnt the fabric color out a bit; I did it on a darker-than-usual piece of antique white.



And so I'm picking up Christmas Bells that I started in August but only got this far:


It will be a quick finish.  Once it's done, it's back to another stocking, then the last four Avengers if it's still September.  They have their black outlines done, but I can't find the bag I put them in when I switched purses.  They'll turn up.


5.  A 5x7 kit - this one is Home is Where the Cat Is after its teeeeeny-tiny bit of progress in August.  It was like - maybe 20 whole stitches!  This is a prezzie!



6.  A crochet or knit project.  Spiral Afghan grows larger daily!  I have to get up to forty stitches between increases and right now I'm at twenty. The rows stop curling when the next one is done, and the edging is crab stitch which will eliminate the curl in the last row, which is a bonus!  I also plan to go back and pull the hole in the center together - the next time I stitch this pattern, I'll know to start with a smaller loop than what the pattern actually says.



The owls are working perfectly.  Tazzy - they are made with snap-back earring posts, but they weren't made to be earrings.  They have to be able to open for crochet, so I think the earring backs are a great idea!  Linda - working with two colors is easy for this one - just drop one and move down to the other.  Thankfully, crochet doesn't unravel easily and the owls stop any chance all together.

7. The HAED Freebie SAL project, QS Lovers, during IHSW.

And just in case you guys feel that you haven't seen enough pictures Oo  here's some drool-worthy stash!

I got one more HAED before the sale was over - Sessler's Ranoel:



Question - does he look like his background is dark brown to anyone else or is it just my monitor?  The pattern calls for black, but I always thought it was brown and like it that way, so I plan to switch to brown.  Actually - I plan to totally cheat by buying or dyeing a piece of dark brown fabric and not stitching the background!

And I got another from WS&B - I'm gonna have to start a page for these because I went surfing on the site and found a lot more that I like when I thought there weren't any!  So I figure one a payday - they cost $2.50 US.  This one is the Tapestry version of Angel of Death.



I chose the Tapestry version because I have a really good conversion chart, the purples were much brighter in it, the wings and flowers show up better, and the cross stitch version doesn't have the red tears.  The Goth Chick actually chose this pattern.  It'll be for her - y'know, someday XD

And now I will torture you with pics no longer!  Have a great evening!

Another Stocking

I do apologize for the bits of marker-grid, but I wanted to go ahead and post this. They will be completely faded away by tomorrow.



Pretty, yes?  I like this one a lot! Even if it doesn't look all that Christmas-y.  I decided to grid it because the actual cross stitches were few and far between.  I was pretty sure I'd miscount - I'm good at that!  I've lost count of how many this makes of the 30, but I'll figure it out next time I get the pattern out.  I want to do two next month, as well.

That's the only pic for today - I got more of Chibi-Sev done and some Sprite outlines, but I'm just going to post them when they are finished.  Tonight I shall work on Fred!

Maybe a Bit Faster

Loki and Thor are now done:


Very handsome!  I stitched them and the next two Sprites on light blue fabric.  Looks grey, but it isn't.

I stitched two more outlines - Mr Scary-Skull-Face and Mr Could-Be-Anybody



Then turned them into Iron Man and Captain America.  I love Sprites!  Thanks, Missy!


I stitched Iron Man's arc reactor with bright white rayon floss for a little extra glow.  You can tell a little in the picture - the other white is B5200 - and it looks great in real life!

I finished the stocking:



And I had some issues with the Chibi of Severus, the main one being....


AAAAGGHHH!  He looks terrifying!  LOL!!! I'm hoping he improves with the other skin shade, otherwise I'm ripping that out and stitching some lighter color.  My other issue was that his eyebrows were in the darkest skin tone (actually a light brown) on the pattern, and that didn't look right - so I went and looked at the finished pic, and yup, they were supposed to be black.  Much better.

And that's mostly it, 'cause I ended up working a few extra shifts and got very little done on the cat-chair.

This weekend is IHSW, so I'm pulling Lovers back out for a few days - so next Wednesday will be kinda skimpy on Sprint-Stitching progress.  Ah, well.

A Little Further

I have finished 'Warm Hearts'.




I have done all the black on Chibi-Sev:




I have (finally) gotten around to finishing Loki's outline and I did Thor's, too:


They would have a lot more colors if I would ever remember to take the other floss to work with me XD


And I've filled in some more of the chair on 'Home is Where the Cat Is'.



By next Wednesday, I hope to show off at least four finished Sprites, all the stitching on the cat & chair, and a finished stocking, at the very least.  Oh, and some more done on Sev.