F is for Frederick

Frederick the Literate, to be exact.

I wish this post was to announce that I had finished him, but I'm not quite there yet.  He does, however, finally have a face!


Isn't he handsome?  He's still lacking his whiskers, because they are couched and will therefore be the last thing I stitch on this project.  I don't want to catch them accidentally with my needle, or pull them out of place with a hoop or q-snap.

I'm working on finishing up Fred in quarters - I was going to do all the metallic bits, then all the backstitching, but I decided to divide it up the way the pattern does, and just do each fourth's work all at once.  I'm almost done with this quarter - it ends with the tall, skinny red book.

I really like the book names on this - The Giant Rodent, 'Caterbury' Tales, Rat Hole, Bye Bye Birdie, and the next is Corporate Fat Cats.

There are lots of books to go!  Here's how Fred looks with all his main stitching done and no backstick yet, with only a tiny bit of metallic:


And how he'll look when finished:

E is for Erestor (and YOTA! Totally for YOTA, too!)

I really had to think about this one!  I couldn't find anything at first, and I started to go with E is for Eagle, and show one finish - but then the Turtle Trot list came through for me again!

In the Lord of the Rings books - not the movies, sadly - there is a very small part about an elf called Erestor.

You should read it - Erestor is the Chief Adviser to Elrond, and if you can sort out some of the old-style speech, he is snarky and awesome!

He's not really in the movie, they just called one of the background elves Erestor.  This is a pic you'll get if you search for movie-Erestor (sadly small, but all there is!):



And this is a pattern I made - with the artist's permission! - of a drawing of Erestor.  I made it in PCStitch, and this is the exported pic.  I started him on that same Crazy January Challenge that I completely failed at.




This was the tiny start I made:



He won't be like this for long, though - Fred has about a quarter of his finish-up bits done, and as soon as he has all of them, Erestor is taking Frederick's place in my main rotation.  He's actually going to be a pretty easy stitch - lots of blank white space and only about six or seven shades of grey.

Also, today is YOTA!  My YOTA project is Wufei, and this is his before pic:



And his after pic:



The reason I am so late posting today is because after I worked a partial day (five hours) I went to JoAnn's!
If you're a new follower (and hi! by the way) a trip to JoAnn's is a very big deal because it's almost a two hour drive.  I'm very tired.  But happy!  I kitted up two HAEDs and added a few kits to my collection, including one to go with yesterday's post:



I'll show more stash later!  Have a nice night!

D is for Drinking!

I almost went with D is for Dolphin, because I have only one kit and one finish and one WIP - but, I'm trying to think outside the box with these, so despite the fact that I once more have waaaaay too many things to show, Drinking it is!

By which I mean Coffee and Tea, because I don't actually drink alcohol XD

First up - stash?  Yes, stash!

I love this sampler from Cross Country Stitching magazine.  I have the fabric, but I haven't bought the floss yet.  Still counts as stash to me, lol!



Then I have these - a full kit called Coffee Break, a pattern-and-thread-leftovers kit that was given to me called Tea Dictionary, and a full kit called Coffee and Tea.  My sibling and I have a someday-dream of having a little coffee, tea and sweet things shop, and we are both slowly collecting a few things for it.  It keeps the dream alive.  And of course, I collect mostly stitching stuff!  and some pretty teapots.



Finally, two WIPs!  This first is Janlynn's Smell the Coffee - started long enough ago that I should really call it a UFO, but I refuse.  It's totally a WIP.  Just a really, really neglected one!



And Dimension's A Whole Lotta Latte, which was my birthday start about a week and a half ago.  I only worked on it for a little bit, but a start is a start is a start!



Tomorrow is letter E!  It was a tough one, but I chose something at last!

Oh, if anyone happens to be interested in specialty tea and coffee blends, my sibling sells ours here.

C is for Cardinal

Once again, my A-Z posting is inspired by Turtle-Trot pieces : D

I started to do C is for Cat, then I got out the project for today and went, 'Heeeeeyyyy!'  Because I can show a WIP and some stash, to change things up.  I even had two little finishes.

C is for Cardinal Song!

As he shall look:


As he does look:


Awesome progress, yes? Lol!!! He hasn't been touched since he was started as a Crazy January Challenge start.  Since I didn't do the CJC this year, that should give you guys a hint as to the last time he was worked on.

And stash - I knew I had at least four kits with Cardinals featured:

Winter Cardinals, Elsa William's Bird Seasons, and Cardinals on Sled:


but I could not for the life of me find my other kit.  It was not in my the little plastic three-drawer shelf thingie with my other kits.  I know I own it, but my craft room is currently a disaster and I couldn't turn it up.  So here's a pic nabbed off the internet:

Bicycle Birds!


I love cardinals - they're such a cheerful splash of color in the monochrome wintertime.  This challenge is not going to be easy on my willpower - I want to start every single one of these right now!

Anyway, here's a wee finished cardinal, one of my stocking set:


And another, I think this one is called Snow Birds, and it was a freebie by the Drawn Thread? I think?  I know I stitched it mainly for the pretty red-bird!



I also bought Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow mainly for the square with the Cardinal.  Haven't started that yet, either, but I will someday!

B is for Baby

Since I showed some Works-in-Progress yesterday, I thought I'd show something finished or some stash today.  A search turned up... well, not much so far as 'B' goes until I came across some Babies!

Rooster Baby, by Ellen Maurer-Stroh:



Stitched several years ago, and still not framed yet!  These patterns are fairly intricate, at least for their size.  Lots of color changes.  They used to be free, but they were taken down because of copyright infringement - mostly other sites claiming to be the designers.  There were no new ones for over a year, then they popped up for sale on patternsonline.com .  You can still buy them there, and I have them all in my stash.  I got most as the freebies, and I think there were ten or so new ones that I ended up buying.  I have the Bunny baby in progress.  I used to say I wanted to stitch them all.  They were some of the first projects I found when I started looking at cross stitch on the net.


And 'Spotted Leopards' from the Endangered Young'ins books:



These books are out of print.  They are by Gloria and Pat and you can find them on eBay sometimes if you're really, really lucky.  Sometimes, you can even get them cheap!  I also wanted to stitch all of these babies, mostly for my younger sister who is a passionate animal lover.  Her tastes have changed, though, and she's more fond of realistic patterns instead of cute ones.  But I do have a little nephew due in May, so we'll see if these get some more love!  I have the Brown Bears in progress.

A is for Angel

So - the first post of the A-Z Challenge, I took advantage of the Turtle-Trot pieces I already had out, and decided to go with Angels.

I have four big Angel pieces in so-called progress:

Lavender and Lace's Angel of Grace currently looks like this:



I got her in my q-snaps yesterday and did the few stitches of 902 that the needle is coming from.  It's the beginning of the two long ribbons from her bustle.  When done, she will look like this:



Next is Mirabilia's Archangel:



He is the first project that I ever tried over-one stitching on. The pattern doesn't call for it, but I had seen other people working Mirabilia's with over-one skin and it looked so pretty. I thought this was soooooo hard, though!  I bet after the HAEDs I've been working on since then, he'll be a lot easier!  He's being stitched on Silkweaver's 'Thunderstorm', and I will try and get a good picture of the fabric - you can't tell how gorgeous it is in this shot.  Do please excuse the fold lines, he's been in a box for quite a while.

He'll look like this when finished:



And this is one I don't think I've ever talked about on this blog - Lavender and Lace's Peace Angel.

I have most of a wing done:



The reason I've not worked on her in a long time - it's been years, actually, and I had to hunt for awhile until I found her box - is that I started her very early in my stitching career and after getting this far, suddenly realized - this fabric is a lot narrower than I thought!



She will look like this:



And I did not think she was going to fit and she had been so hard - first linen, first over-two project - that I knew I didn't want to restart her.  I was truly afraid to count over and be proved right.  So I pretended she didn't exist and stuck her in a box and started something else.

Today, I bit the bullet and counted over from where I am, 44 stitches to what her total width will be.

And this is what I got (can you see the needle?):



And I can live with that, and so can my framer. (Yes, I called her.)  She says she can sew on an extra strip of fabric and the mat will cover the join.  I can live with that, too.  I'm unbelievably relived!!!  I'm seriously thinking of leaving her out and cramming her into my rotation somewhere.

The fourth Angel, of course, is HAED's Guardian Angel.  Which is still at my parent's house, and which  has practically nothing done on it, anyway - so here's the picture of what he'll look like done and maybe for the Turtle Trot post I'll have some progress!



Now I'm off to sort through some stash and WIPs in an attempt to choose something for the letter 'B'.

Goals, and the A-Z Challenge

These were my March Goals:

1. Work on Snowing  - Yep, although not a lot

2. Finish the black on Nostlagy and whatever background I can - done!

3. Work on Lovers during IHSW - done!

4. Work on Guardian Angel - nope

5. Work on Wufei - done!

6. Work on afghans - try to finish one - done! and the finish!

7. Do a motif on Mary Wigham - done!

8. Stitch two Sprites off my list - I stitched 8 outlines instead

9. Stitch the metallic bits on Fred - I got some of it done. 

10. Try not to start anything besides my usual birthday start - done! and I'll show the birthday start soon!

11. If I don't go insane getting this done, maybe a bit on Archangel? - didn't happen


For April:

1. Work on Snowing

2. Blog for the A-Z challenge

3. Work on Lovers during IHSW

4. Work on Wufei

5. Finish another afghan

6. Do a motif on Mary Wigham

7. Stitch a stocking ornament

8. Finish the metallic bits on Fred and get some backstitching done

9. Do at least one needleful of each Turtle Trot project before the 13th.


Now for the challenge - there's a button on the right that will take you to the main site - the goal is to post about something that will feature one letter of the alphabet, all in April.  That leaves five days, which will be taken up with this Goals post, the IHSW post, the Turtle-trot post, and leave me two open days.  You're supposed to pick a topic; mine's going to be trying to see if I can find some sort of cross-stitch, started or not, that I own for every letter of the alphabet.  So expect a lot in April - letter 'A' will be tomorrow!

And here's a letter 'A' from HAED, although this is not for the A-Z challenge!  It's from a layaway.

'Arthur', by LA Williams